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Conservation Resources 



A MEMORIAL 



TO THE 



CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES 



On Behalf of the State of Sequoyah 



By transfer 

JUN n 1906 



7 



'St 



A Memorial to the Congress of the United States 
On Behalf of the State of Sequoyah. 

To the Honorable the Senate and the House of 

Represenfafiz'es in Coui^ress assembled : 

On behalf of the people of this State I have the honor to sub- 
mit to you the Constitution of the State of Sequoyah. It was 
drawn and adopted by the Constitutional Convention of the State 
which conveyed at Muskogee. Indian Territory, August 21, 1905. 
It was ratified by a vote of our people on November 7, 1905, 65,352 
voting, of whom 9,073 voted against the adoption, and 56,279 
voted in favor of the adoption of the Constitution. 

We respectfully request that said constitution be approved and 
that the State of Sequoyah be duly admitted by your honorable 
l)ody as one of the States of the Union. 

In support of the above request, we respectfully submit the 
following propositions : 

That we are entitled to immediate independent Statehood. 

First: (a) By area, 31,400 square miles. 

(b) By number of our population, conservatively estimated at 
seven hundred and fifty thousand souls. 

(c) By the character of our people, being educated, industrious, 
thrifty, law-abiding and learned in the art of self-government. 

(d) By actual taxable wealth, estimated at $400,000,000. 

(e) By our developed and undeveloped resources in oil, gas, 
coal, granite, marble, lumber, etc. Railroads, telegraphs, telephones, 
etc., and agricultural products cattle, horses, etc. 

(f) By our immense immediate prospective population; our 
annual immigration being greater than the total population of 
some of the States now in the Union. 

(g) By the fact that we constitute a separate and distinct 
community from any other on earth, with a different history, asso- 
ciations, ideals and hopes. 

(h) Bv the natural right which is inherent in every great 
body of human beings to govern themselves; to educate their chil- 
dren ; to care for the deaf, dumb and blind ; the insane and pauper 
class; to make their own laws for the control of crime and vice, 
and for the promotion of virtue and good citizenship. 

(i) By the natural right to make laws for our safety, con- 
venience, comfort, and to maintain especially prohibition laws for 
our community, free from outside interference. 

(j) By the necessitv of being able to answer the railroad suits 
now proposed against thousands of otn^ Indian allottees without 
outside interference. 



I 1 ") / 1 



(k) By the right to build our own pubhc institutions and con- 
(kict them free from outside interferences. 

Second : We are entitled under the Treaties and Laws of the 
United States, to-wit: 

(a) By the Treaty with France of April 3, 1803. 

(b) By the Treaty with the Choctaws and Chickasaws 
of 1830. 

(c) By the Treaty with the Cherokees of 1835. 

(d) By the Treaty with the Creeks and Seminoles of 1856. 

(e) By the Treaty with the Five Nations of 1866. 

(f) By the Act of Congress of March 3, 1893. 

(g) By the Act of Congress of June 28, 1898. 

(h) By the propositions and representations made to the Five 
Nations by the Commission to the five civilized tribes. 

(i) By the pledges of the United States to maintain forever 
prohibition. 

Third: We are entitled under the Constitution of the United 
States, and its interpretation for over a hundred years, and by 
precedent established in admitting other States into the Union. 

Fourth : We are entitled by consideration for the welfare and 
true interests of the Republic itself, in the maintenance of its 
honor, prestige and power. 

Fifth : We are entitled under the pledges of the National 
Republican party and of the National Democratic party. 

Sixth : We are entitled under the welfare and interest of the 
great Mississippi Valley, the future home of untold millions; the 
granary of the world, and the bulwark of the Union. 

Seventh: (a) Joint statehood with Oklahoma would violate 
the treaties of the United States and its contracts, as to statehood 
and as to prohibition. 

(b) Would do violence to the wishes of the people of 
Sequoyah. 

(c) Would be contrary to the wishes of the people of Okla- 
homa. 

(d) Would l)e against the interests, sentiments and ideals of 
both communities. 

(e) Would violate every precedent in the admission of States, 
as Congress never in the history of the country have compelled the 
merger of two States or of two territories. 

Eighth : The Constitution herewith submitted represents the 
will of the people of the State of Sequoyah. The wishes of a peo- 
ple who have been grossly misrepresented by a propaganda advo- 
cating a union with Oklahoma, in the promotion of selfish interest, 
on behalf of the railroads, the liquor traffic, ambitious town pro- 
moters and professional politicians. 



3 
FIRST. 

(a) Sequoyah is entitled by area. 

Sequoyah has an area of 31,400 square miles. It is nearly 
four times as large as Maryland, it is over six times as large as 
Connecticut. It could contain Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, Delaware, New Jersey, and over three-quarters of Mary- 
land. It is within a fraction of the size of Indiana. 

The average size of the States east of the Mississippi is 32,884 
square miles, which is but a fraction larger than the Indian Terri- 
tory. A table of the areas is here submitted : 

East. Square miles. 

Alabama 5i>540 

Connecticut 4^845 

Delaware i,gbcj 

District of Columbia 60 

Florida 54,240 

Georgia 58,980 

Illinois 56,000 

Indiana 35»9iC) 

Kentucky 40,000 

Maine 29,895 

Maryland 9,860 

Massachusetts 8,040 

Michigan 57,430 

Mississippi , . 46,340 

New Hampshire 9,005 

New Jersey 7,5^5 

New York 47,620 

North Carolina 48,580 

Ohio 40,760 

Pennsylvania 44,985 

Rhode Island 1,053 

South Carolina 30,170 

Tennessee , . . 41,750 

Vermont 9,i35 

Virginia 40,125 

West Virginia 24,645 

Wisconsin 54,450 

Total 854,903 

Average size 32,884 



4 

JVesf Square miles. 

Arizona 1 12,920 

Arkansas 53^045 

California 1 55,980 

Colorado 103,645 

Idaho 84.290 

Indian Territory 31,000 

Iowa 55'475 

Kansas 81.700 

Missouri 68,735 

Montana 145,310 

Nebraska 76,840 

Nevada , 109,740 

New Mexico 122.460 

North Dakota 70.195 

Oklahoma 38,390 

Oregon 94,560 

South Dakota 76,850 

Texas 262,290 

Utah 82.190 

Wyoming 97,575 

Washington 66,880 

Total 1,990,410 

Average size 94.781 

Average size Oklahoma and Indian Territory. . . . 34,660 
Average size four territories seeking admission. . . 76,187 

(b) Sequoyah is entitled by population. 
Because it has more people than sixteen States already in the 
Union, by the census of 1900. 

Colorado 540,000 

Delaware " 185,000 

Florida 528,000 

Idaho 162,000 

Maine 694,000 

Montana 243,000 

North Dakota 319,000 

Nevada 42,000 

New Hampshire 412,000 

Oregon 414,000 

Rhode Island 319,000 

South Dakota 402.000 



3 

Utah . . . , 277,000 

Vermont . 344,000 

Washington 5 18,000 

Wyoming 93,ooo 

Because it is better quahfied by resources than any State ever 
admitted, at the time of its admission, and because it has a popula- 
tion three times as large as any State ever had at the time of its 
admission, as will appear from the following table : 

Montana, admitted Nov. 8, 1889, population 1890 132,159 

North Dakota, admitted Nov. 2, 1889, population 1890. . . . 182,719 
South Dakota, admitted Nov. 2, 1889, population 1890. . . .328,803 

Utah, admitted Jan. 4, 1896. population 1900 276,749 

Vermont, admitted Alarch 4, 1791, population 1890 85,425 

Idaho, admitted July 3, 1890, population 1890 84,385 

Wyoming, admitted July 10, 1890, population 1890 60,705 

Ohio, admitted Nov. 29, 1802, population 1800 45.365 

California, admitted S,ept. 9, 1850, population 1850 9^,597 

Indiana, admitted Dec. 11, 1816, population 1810 24,520 

Illinois, admitted Dec. 3, 1818, population 1820 85,211 

Washington, admitted Nov. 11, 1889, population 1890 349,390 

Minnesota, admitted May 11, 1889, population 1890 172,023 

Nebraska, admitted March i, 1867, population 1870 122,993 

Oregon, admitted Feb. 14, 1859, population i860 52,465 

Alabama, admitted Dec. 14, 1819, population 1820 127,901 

Florida, admitted March 3. 1845, population 1850 87,445 

Iowa, admitted Dec, 1846, population 1856 192,214 

Delaware, one of the original 13 States, population 1900. .. 184,735 

(c) Sequoyah is entitled by the character of its population. 
Being almost purely of American parentage, with small foreign ele- 
ment of foreign parentage, as illustrated below : 

I.T. N.Y. Conn. Mass. R.I. 
Per cent of people of foreign 

parentage 2.6 33.2 31. 7,2. 32.8 

Per cent, of people of foreign birth. . . 1.2 26. 26.1 29.9 31.2 

1 otal of foreign birth or parentage ... 3.8 59.2 57.1 61.9 64. 

From a standpoint of literacy the people of the Indian Terri- 
tory compare well with the adjacent States. 

(d) Sequoyah is entitled by wealth. 

Sequoyah has, on a fair estimate $400,000,000.00 in taxable 
property, its railroad properties alone are worth $50,000,000.00. 
its farm products not less than $175,000,000.00. It has 20,000.- 
000.00 acres of land worth on an a\erage of $10.00 per acre. 



The following table gives a detailed statement of taxable 
property, computed on the same basis as is done in other States : 

Taxable Property in Indian Territory. 

Railroads, 3,010 miles $50,000,000.00 

Telegraph, telephone, private car and coal company 

property 6,000,000.00 

Bank values $23,000,000 actual, but for taxes at 

very conservative estimate 20,000,000.00 

Town property and improvements at present tax 

value 108,000,000.00 

Live stock, at Secretary Wilson's estimate 14,000,000.00 

Total $202,000,000.00 

This table does not include farm lands, and yet shows over 
four times what Wyoming has at present in taxable property. 

Kansas and Nebraska when admitted to the Union had a total 
tax duplicate of less than twent}^ millions of dollars each. 

Ohio, after it had been a State seventeen years, had only 
'■cached a total tax duplicate of forty-five million dollars. 

It has the greatest oil and gas fields in the United States. 
Sequoyah has great forests of virgin pine and hard woods. It has 
millions of acres of merchantable coal. It has enough asphalt to 
pave every city in the United States. It has magnificent deposits 
of granite, marble of all colors, beautiful building stone, and de- 
posits of lead, zinc, iron and other minerals. It has greater natural 
resources than any like area in the whole world. 

(e) It has a superb climate, being not too far to the North. 
nor too far to the South. It has an abundant rain fall, well dis- 
tributed, and a soil most productive. Wheat, rye, oats, corn, bar- 
ley, flax, alfalfa, clover, timothy, tobacco and cotton thrive every- 
where. Apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, and berries of every 
variety have their natural habitat in the State of Sequoyah. In no 
place in the Union do horses, cattle, sheep and swine grow to 
greater perfection. It has splendid water power, and numerous 
fine rivers and streams, and widely extended artesian water. 

The country is intersected with a net work of railroads, tele- 
graph and telephone lines. There are over 800 post offices. Two 
hundred and sixty-nine banks and trust companies, and manufac- 
turing enterprises are rapidly centering in the oil and gas fields 
where fuel can be obtained at a nominal cost. No State in the 
Union has greater resources, for like area, developed and unde- 
veloped. 

(f) Sequoyah entitled by immediate prospective population. 



Above all, the State of Sequoyah has a powerful right for in- 
depent, separate and immediate statehood, because of the rate of 
immigration, now at high tide, which practically guarantees that 
within a few years Sequoyah will have not less than two millions 
of people. 

The immigration for the present year is probably not less than 
150,000, and statehood would undoubtedly tend to further increase 
it to a very large degree. 

■ (g) Sequoyah entitled as a distinct community. 

The people of- Sequoyah compose a community, separate and 
distinct from any other on earth, with a different history, different 
associations and different sentiments, and with different ideals and 
hopes. They live under a form of law established by the United 
States and in pursuance of its treaties, consisting of all the various 
treaties, of Mansfield's Digest, and the laws of the United States 
applicable to the community, and entirely different from the laws 
governing any other community in the United States. With these 
laws our people are familiar, and with these laws no other people 
have any such familiarity, and when we change them we wish to 
change them in our own way, retaining what we have found to be 
serviceable, and changing what we have found not suited to our 
conditions. We naturally wish and claim the right to do this with- 
out interference from any other community or people. 

The people of Sequoyah have a natural right to self-govern- 
ment which is undeniable and which should not be questioned by 
anyone. We comprise three-quarters of a million of educated, in- 
dustrious, thrifty law-abiding citizens, people of pure American 
stock. 

(h) We have a natural right to make the laws necessary for 
our comfort, convenience, for our moral and material improve- 
ment and well being. Hundreds of thousands of our children are 
growing up without proper means of education, to become crimi- 
nals, because of ignorance, when we are willing to pay for their 
schooling, if we only had legal means of providing for it. We 
have no way to care for the insane. We have no way to care for 
the deaf, dumb and blind. We have no way to care for the sick, the 
halt, the lame or our pauper classes. We have no way to provide 
for the speedy hearing of criminal or civil cases. Our citizens ac- 
cused languish in jail for long periods of time, waiting the admin- 
istration of justice through the insufficient Federal Courts, which 
exercise jurisdiction from small misdemeanors up to murder. We 
have a natural right to make laws suitable to control crime and vice 
in our midst and promote virtue and good citizenship. 

We have a right to make laws which will provide for the 



8 

safety, comfort, convenience and happiness of our people. We have 
a rig-ht to make laws which will prevent the introduction of intoxi- 
cants into our country, and we ought not to be compelled to con- 
sult the wishes of another community, which is strongly in favor 
of the free introduction and sale of intoxicating liquors. 

(i) We have a natural right to organize a government of our 
own through which we can protect our citizens from the suits now 
contemplated by the railroads, which are trying to deprive our 
allottees of a belt of country running through the Indian Territory 
ten miles on either side of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, 
and probably twice the area per mile on the Frisco Railroad. 

The Missouri, Kansas tS: Texas Railroad Company, in a report 
to its stockholders for the rear ending June 30, IQ05, contained the 
following : 

"Land Grant and Statehood." 

"The bill pending in Congress of the United States for the 
admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory as States of the 
American Union, failed to pass at the last session. The bill as it 
passed the House was amended in the Senate, and went to a con- 
ference committee of both bodies, which failed to agree and Con- 
gress adjourned without final action. The failure resulted from 
a disagreement of the House and Senate as to certain provisions 
of the bill, which provided also for the admission of the Territories 
of New Mexico and Arizona. 

'Tt is confidently expected that favorable action will be taken 
at the coming session, which begins in December, and that the 
hopes of the people of Oklahoma and Indian Territory, and of your 
Company will be realized, by the admission of these Territories to 
Statehood. 

"The governmental authorities of the State of Kansas have 
agreed to bring these suits in their name as a State, to test the 
rights of our Company to its land grant in the Indian Territory. 

"As the grant was to the State of Kansas for the. benefit of 
your Company, the bringing of the suit will be in its capacity as 
Trustee. These suits will be brought in the United States court and 
as the Supreme Court, has original jurisdiction of suits by States, 
an earlier determination of the matters involved is now anticipated 
than could be attained in any other way." 

The joint statehood propaganda has been engineered and domi- 
nated by the attorneys of the railroads of Indian Territory. The 
National Committeeman of the Democratic party is an attorney for 
the M. K. & T. Railroad, and the National Committeeman of the 



Eepublican party is an attorney for the Frisco Railroad. In case 
of a joint State, the railroad attorneys would exercise a domiilani 
influence, and we have cause to fear that a joint State would not 
properly protect the interests of our people in these suits with the 
railroads. ■ : 

Is it not natural that the people of Sequoyah should fear the 
joint statehood so unanimously advocated by these railroad people, 
who have secured positions in the party machines, which would 
m.'ike them exceedingly influential in the first nominations ot 
judges, of the Attorney General, and in the legislative and executive 
departments? Is it not natural that they should fear that in a 
State so organized, with its first official nominations made under 
such influences, the State defense of the Indian allottees, lying 
within ten miles of either side of these railroads will be as in- 
effectual as possible, and that compromises might be made favor- 
able to the corporations and unfavorable to the allottees. 

(j) We have a natural right to be recognized as a distinct and 
self-governing people, because of the peculiar character of our 
population, and as practically all of the land of the Indian Territory 
3S owned by the Indian people. These Indian people live in com- 
])arative happiness, and on terms of social equality with our citizen- 
ship which has come in from the States. The Indians and the 
white children go to the same schools. In a union with Oklahoma, 
the people of Oklahoma, who have been in contact with the wild 
tribes only (necessarily extremely ignorant and unlearned in all of 
the refinements of life, and who have been degraded by the open 
saloons of Oklahoma), would naturally have sentiments in regard 
to the Indians that would make them unfriendly and inconsiderate 
toward the Indians of the Indian Territory. There would be a 
strong tendency to discriminate against the Indians of the Indian 
Territory, both socially and as to their property and civil rights. 
The purpose of the statesmen of Oklahoma to deal unfairly with 
the people of Sequoyah, has been demonstrated by the various bills 
which they have introduced, as the Doyle bill and the Hamilton 
bill, giving Oklahoma entire control of the election machinery and 
a controlling majority in the proposed constitutional conventions. 

In the recent joint State propaganda they have been guilty of 
continued and gross misrepresentations widely and actively dis- 
seminated through the public press. They have held repeated mass 
meetings, called conventions, to which no citizens were invited, and 
in which no citizens were permitted to participate unless they were 
known to have the same peculiar views as the promoters of the 
joint State propaganda. The members of these so-called state- 
hood conventions from Indian Territorv have been, as a rule elected 



lO 

by very small gatherings of citizens frequently held in private, so 
that as far as Indian Territory is concerned the conventions repre- 
sented little beyond their own membership. The joint State ad- 
vocates have never been willing to submit the question to the people 
for a vote, but on the contrary have tried to prevent a vote and when 
they could not prevent the vote on the constitution of the State of 
Sequoyah, nevertheless they succeeded in recording nine thousand 
votes against it, in a total of sixty-five thousand. This vote of 
nine thousand embraces not only those favoring joint statehood, 
but also those influenced by the railroads and those favoring the in- 
troduction of intoxicants into the Indian Territory, and corpora- 
tions and individuals opposed to any change which will inaugurate 
a system of taxation. 

We are entitled to the rights we claim as American citizens, 
and the denial of these rights is a grievous wrong against us, which 
is but little short of a national scandal. 

We are entitled to these rights by numbers. 

We are entitled because of our citizenship and the constitu- 
tional right attaching thereto of equality with other citizens in the 
matter of self-government. 

We are entitled on account of our industry, thrift and our 
material and moral worth. 

We are entitled to it by virtue of the magnificent territory we 
occupy. 

We are entitled to it by the immense resources of our Terri- 
tory, developed and undeveloped. 

SECOND. 

Sequoyah is entitled under the Treaties and Laws. 

The United States in the Treaty with France of April 3, 1803, 
in the Third Article, relating to the lands of the Louisiana .Pur- 
chase, contracted and agreed with France, as follows : 

"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated 
in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possi- 
ble, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution to the 
enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens 
of the United States." (8 U. S. Stats., 200.) 

The earliest date possible for the admission of the State of 
Sequoyah under the treaties of the United States, is March 4, 1906, 
as set forth in its agreements with the five civilized nations .of 
Indians. 

The principles of the Federal Constitution referred to are set 



II 

out in the ordinance and compact of July 13, 1787, and in the Con- 
stitution in Article 4, Section 3, as follows : 

"New States may be admitted, by the Congress, into this 
Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the juris- 
diction of another State ; nor any State be formed by the junction 
of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the 
legislature of the States concerned as well as of the Congress." 

"American Insurance vs. Canter, i Pet., 511. 
"Pollards Lessee z^s. Hagan, 3 How., 212, 
"Cross et al vs. Harrison, 16 How., 164." 

Article 4, Section 4. "The United States shall guarantee to 
every State in this Union a Republican form of Government." 

The Ordinance of 1787 authorizes each new State with 60,000 
free inhabitants to adopt a Republican Constitution and demand 
admittance as a contract right. 

The rights granted by the Treaty with France have been car- 
ried out as to all parts of the Louisiana Purchase, except in the 
case of the inchoate States of Sequoyah and Oklahoma. Under the 
principles and treaty referred to, they now have, severally, a right 
to adopt a constitution and demand admittance. 

Prior to the existence of the United States, the Cherokee 
Nation, the Choctaw Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, the Creek 
Nation and the Seminole Nation had been from remotest antiquity 
independent sovereignties, governing themselves, and were so 
recognized by the United States, and their right of self-government 
was confirmed and continued by the express stipulations of various 
treaties, wherein the United States contracted and agreed that 
these communities should continue to exercise the unrestricted right 
of self-government. For instance, it was agreed with the Creeks 
and Seminoles. Article 15, Treaty of 1856. 

"The Creeks and Seminoles shall be secured in the unre- 
stricted right of self-government." (Rev. Ind. Tr., iii.) 

"And with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, Article 7, Treaty 
of 1855, the United States contracted: 

" 'That the Choctaws and Chickasaws shall be secured in the 
unrestricted right of self-government.' " (Rev. Ind. Tr., 2yy.) 

And with the Cherokees, the United States contracted, Article 
5, of the Treaty of 1835, as follows: 

"But they shall secure to the Cherokee Nation the right, by 
their National Councils, to make and carry into effect all such laws 
as they may deem necessary for the government and protection of 
the persons and property within their own country, belonging to 
their people, or to such persons as have connected themselves with 
them." (Rev. Ind. Tr., 69.) 



12 

The States of North CaroHna, South Carohna, Georgia. 
Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, between 1820 and 
1830, demanded of the United States that the five nations should 
be removed from within the boundaries of these States. The 
United States found great difficulty in inducing the Indians to 
agree to this, as the Indians had a treaty right to the land and to 
independent self-government. A bitter contest ensued between the 
State governments and the Indian governments, in which finally 
the Indian people were induced by the Federal Government to re- 
move, upon the assurance that no State or Territory should ever 
thereafter have any right to pass laws as to them, and that no part 
of the lands sold to them in Indian Territory should ever be em- 
l^raced within the limits of any State or Territory, without their 
consent, as follows : 

Treaty with the Cherokees of 1835. 

Article 5. ''The United States hereby covenants and agrees 
that the lands ceded to the Cherokee Nation in the foregoing article 
shall in 710 future time, without their consent, he included ivithin the 
icrritorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory/' (y U. S. 
Stats., 481.) 

Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of 1830. 

Article 4. "The government and people of the United States 
are hereby obliged to secure to the said Choctaw Nation the juris- 
diction and government of all the persons and property that may 
be within their limits, west, so that no Territory or States shall ever 
have a right to pass laws for the government of the Choctaw Nation 
of red people and their descendents, and that no part of the land 
granted thcin shall ever be endnaced in any State or Territory." 
(7th V. S. Stats., page 334.) 

Treaty with the Creeks and Seminoles of 1856. 

Article 4. "The United States do solemnly agree and bind them- 
selves that no State or Territory should ever pass laws for the gov- 
ernment of the Creek or Seminole Tribes of Indians, and that no 
portion of either of their tracts of country defined in the first and 
second articles of this agreement shall ez'cr be embraced or included 
within, or annexed to any Territory or State, nor shall either or 
any part of either ever be erected into a Territory w-ithout the free 
and full consent, or without the legislative authority of the tribe 
oivning the same." (Rev. Ind. Treaties. 106.) 



13 

Upon these treaties, the Indians have confidently reHed, and 
looked forward to the time when they would have the right to the 
establishment of an independent State in Indian Territory, which 
they were led to believe by the authorities of the United States was 
the intent and purpose of these treaties. 

This sentiment is illustrated by the Preamble of the Treaty 
with the Cherokees of 1828, as follows: 

"Whereas, it being the anxious desire of the Government of 
the United States to secure to the Cherokee Nation of Indians as 
well as those now living within the limits of the Territory of 
Arkansas, as those of their friends and brothers, who reside in the 
States East of the Mississippi, and who may wish to join their 
brothers of the West, a permanent home, which shall, under the 
most solemn guarantee of the United States, be and remain theirs 
forever — a home that shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed 
by having extended around it the laws, or placed over it the juris- 
diction of a Territory or State, nor be pressed upon by the extend- 
ing, in any way, of any of the limits of anv existing- Territory or 
State." (Rev. Ind. Tr., 56, etc.) 

In pursuance of this declared policy, the United States con- 
tracted with the Cherokees, by the Treaty of 1835, as follows: 

Article 7. "The Cherokee Nation having already made great 
progress in civilization, and deeming it important that every proper 
and laudable inducement should be offered to their people to im- 
prove their condition, as well as to guard and secure in the most 
effectual manner, the rights guaranteed to them in this treaty, and 
with a view to illustrate the liberal and enlarged policy of the gov- 
ernment of the United States tozuard the Indians in their removal 
beyond the territorial limits of the States, it is stipulated that they 
shall be entitled to a delegate in the House of Representatives of 
the United. States whenever Congress shall make provision for the 
same." 

The lands of the Indian Territory were sold to the Indian 
Nations for tracts of country of great value, which the United 
States has retained and disposed of, and they were induced to come 
to the Indian Territory as a country. 

"Outside of the territorial limits of the State sovereignties, 
where they might establish and enjoy a government of their choice 
ond perpetuate such a State or society as may be most consonant 
ivith their views, habits, and conditions, and as may tend to their 
individual comfort and advancement in civilization." (Rev. Ind. 
Tr., 65.) 

By the various treaties of 1866, the United States in pursuance 
of the plan of establishing independent governments for the people 



14 

and country of the five civilized tribes, expressly stipulated and 
agreed upon the establishment of a general Council for Indian Ter- 
ritory, with full powers of legislation, in the nature of a territorial 
government, with the right to enact and enforce their laws. 

(Cherokees, Art. 12., R. I. Tr., 90.) 
(Creeks and Seminoles, Art. 10, do, 119.) 
(Choctaws and Chickasaws, Art. 8, R. I. Tr., 289.) 

The guarantees as to statehood and self-government were re- 
affirmed by the United States in the Treatry of 1866, as follows: 

Cherokees: "Art. 31. All provisions of treaties heretofore rati- 
fied and in force, not inconsistent with the provisions of this treaty, 
are hereby re-affirmed and declared to be in full force." (Rev. Ind. 
Tr.,27.) 

Creeks: "Art. 12. The United States re-affirms and re-assumes 
all treaty stipulations with the Creek Nation entered into before 
'x x' 1861, not inconsistent herewith." (Rev. Ind. Tr., 121.) 

Seminoles : "Art. 9. The United States re-affirms and re- 
assumes all the obligations of treaty stipulations entered into before 
'x x' August I, 1861, not inconsistent herewith." (Rev. Ind. Tr., 
817.) 

And of like purport was the treaty with the Choctaws and 
Chickasaws, which makes void only those treaties and parts of 
treaties inconsistent with the Treaty of 1866. (Rev. Ind. Tr., 303.) 

In the Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty, in Section 13, it was 
provided that the General Council for Indian Territory, above re- 
ferred to, should consist of an Upper and Lower House with such 
relations to each other: 

"As prevail in the States of the United States, etc." (Rev. 
Ind. Tr., 292.) 

On March 30, 1871, the Congress of the United States passed 
the following act : 

"Provided that hereafter no Indian Nation or tribe within the 
Territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized 
as an independent nation, tribe or power, with whom the United 
States may contract by treaty: Provided, further, that nothing 
herein contained shall be constrned to invalidate or impair the obli- 
gation of any treaty heretofore lazvfully made and ratified with any 
such Indian nation or tribe." (16 State., 566.) 

The Supreme Court has held that in effect this act re-affirms 
all lawful treaty obligations. 

On March i, 1889 (25 State., 757), the Creek Nation ceded 
to the United States : 

"Without reservation or condition, full and complete title to 



15 

the entire western half of the domain of the said Muskogee or 
Creek Nation, lying west of the division line, surveyed and estab- 
lished under the said Treaty of 1866, and also grants and releases 
TO the United States all of their claim, estate, right or interest of 
any and every description in or to any or all land and Territory 
whatever, except so much of the said former domain of the said 
Muskogee or Creek Nation as lies east of said line of division, sur- 
veyed and established as aforesaid, and is now held and occupied 
as the home of the Nation." 

And it is further stipulated and agreed in this contract as fol- 
lows : 

"V. No treaty or agreement heretofore made and now sub- 
sisting is hereby affected, except so far as the provisions hereof 
supercede and control the same." 

On March 2. 1889, a similar contract was made with the Semi- 
Tiole Nation, ceding the western part of their domain in like manner 
to the United States. (25 Stats., 1004.) 

On March 2, 1891, Congress authorized the President to nego- 
tiate with the Cherokees and other Indians, owning or claiming 
land west of the ninety-sixth degree of Longitude in the Indian Ter- 
ritory, for the cession to the United States of all their title, claim or 
interest of every kind or character in and to said land. 

Congress immediately opened the land bought of the Creeks 
and Seminoles to settlement, and erected the Territory of Okla- 
homa. (26 Stats. 81.) 

This Act declared : — 

"That all that portion of the United States now known as the 
Indian Territory, except so much of the same as is occupied by the 
five civilized tribes and the Indian tribes within the Quapaw Indian 
Agency, and except the unoccupied part of the Cherokee out-let, to- 
gether with that portion of the United States known as the Public 
Land Strip, is hereby erected into a temporary government by the 
name of Oklahoma." 

The Cherokee out-let was excluded as above, subject to further 
negotiations with the Cherokees. This Act provided : 

"Any other lands within the Indian Territory not embraced 
within this boundary shall hereafter become a part of the Territory 
of Oklahoma whenever the Indian Nation or Tribe owning such 
lands shall signify to the President of the United States in like man- 
ner its assent that such lands shall so become a part of the said Ter- 
ritory of Oklahoma, and the President shall thereupon make pro- 
clamation to that effect. Congress may at any time thereafter 
change the boundaries of said Territory to attach any portion of the 
same to any state or territory of the United States without the cotv- 



i6 

sent of the inhabitants of the territory hereby created Oklahoma: 
Provided, that nothing in this act shall be construed to impair any 
right now pertaining to any Indians or Indian Tribe in said terri- 
tory under the laws, agreements and treaties of the United States, or 
to impair the rights of persons or property, pertaining to said 
Indians." 

In effect this reaffirms the treaty guarantee. 

The Act of May 2, 1890, established the government of the 
Territory of Oklahoma with full Territorial powers, executive, leg- 
islative and judicial, and the Territory of Oklahoma constructed a 
full code of laws for the government of their people ; a code of laws 
entirely different in every respect from the laws in force in Indian 
Territory. It is not pretended that any of the Indians of the five 
civilized tribes have consented in any manner that their land in In- 
dian Territory proper should be attached to Oklahoma, or to have 
the laws of Oklahoma extended over them; on the contrary, each 
and every one of the five civilized tribes have vigorously protested 
against union with Oklahoma. (Exhibit A.) 

By the general statutes of the United States in regard to Tei- 
ritories in chapter, t. giving the provisions common to all the Terri- 
tories (Rev. Stat. 1878, 325) appears the following statute: 

Section 1839. ''Nothing in this title shall be construed to im- 
pair the rights of persons or property pertaining to the Indians in 
any Territory, so long as such rights remain unextinguished b\ 
treaty hetzveen the United States and such Indians, or to include any 
Territory which, by treaty with any Indian tribe, is not, without the 
consent of such tribe, embraced within the Territorial limits or 
jurisdiction of any State or Territory; but all such territory shall 
be excepted out of the boundaries ; and constitute no part of terri- 
tory nozv or hereafter organized nntil such tribe signifies its assent 
to the President to be embraced within a particular territory." 

This statute and the spirit of this statute is in full force. 

The Cherokee out-let in Oklahoma was opened to settlement 
September 16, 1893, under an agreement with the Cherokees (27 
Stat. 642) and the leased district in Oklahoma was open to settle- 
ment under agreement with the Choctaws and Chickasaws in like 
manner, (zy Stats. 1018, etc.) 

In view of this unbroken history, the Congress on March 3. 
1893, passed the following act (27 Stats. 645) creating the commis- 
sion to the five civilized tribes and authorizing it to negotiate with 
the five civilized nations ''for their consent." 

"Section 16. The President shall nominate, and, by and with 
the consent of the Senate, shall appoint three commissioners to enter 
into negotiations with the Cherokee Nation, the Choctaw Nation, 
the Chickasaw Nation, the Muskogee (or Creek) nation', and the 



17 

Seminole Nation, for the purpose of extinguishing the national and 
tribal title to any lands within the territory now held by any and all 
of such nations or tribes, either by cession of the same, or some 
part thereof, to the United States, or by the allotment and division 
of the same in severalty among the Indians of such nations or tribes, 
respectively, as may be entitled to the same, or by such other method 
as may be agreed upon between the several nations and tribes afore- 
said, or each of them, with the United States, with a view to such an 
adjustment, upon the basis of justice and equity, as may, with the: 
consent of such nations or tribes of Indians, so far as may be neces- 
cary, be requisite and suitable to enable the ultimate creation of a 
State or States of the Union zvhich shall embrace the lands zvithin 
said Indian Territory." 

The commissioners were further instructed to induce the five 
nations to allot their lands and to agree to survey and provide for 
such allotment with the consent of the Indian people in the follow- 
ing language: 

"The said commissioners shall, however, have power to nego- 
tiate any and all such agreements as, in view of all the circumstances 
affecting the subject, shall be found requisite and suitable to such an 
arrangement of the rights and interests and affairs of such nations, 
tribes or bands of Indians, or any of them, to enable the ultimate 
creation of a Territory of the United States with a viezv to the ad- 
mission of the same as a State of the Union." (27 Stats. 645.) 

In pursuance to this authority, the commission to the five civi- 
lized tribes. Honorable Henry L. Dawes, Meredith J. Kidd and 
Archibald S. McKennon, on July 25, 1895, made the following 
proposition to the Creeks : 

"Eighth : If an agreement shall be reached with the Creek 
Nation a territorial form of government may be formed liy Con- 
gress and established over the Territory of the Creek Natioii and 
such other of the Hire civilized tribes as may have at that time agreed 
to the allotment of lands and change of government." 

"Tenth : The present tribal government to continue in ex- 
istence until after the lands are allotted and the allottees put in 
possession — each on his on land — after which territorial govern- 
ment may be established by Congress." 

On the 22d of April, 1894, the said Commissioners made the 
following proposition to the Choctaws and Chickasaws : 

"Seventh : If an agreement shall be reached with the Choctaws 
and Chickasaws, a territorial form of government shall be formed 
over the Territory of the tzvo nations, by Congress, and such other 
of the five civilised tribes, as may have at the time allotted their 
lands and agreed to the change of g(^\-ernment." 



i8 

On the 25th day of July, 1894, the said Commission made the 
following proposition to the Cherokees : 

"If an agreement shall be reached with the Cherokee Nation 
a territorial form of government may be formed by Congress and 
established oz>er the Cherokee Nation^ and such other of the five 
civilised tribes, as may have at the time agreed to allot their lands, 
and change the government." 

"The present tribal government to continue in existence until 
after the lands are allotted, and the allottee put in possession of his 
own land, after which the territorial government, may be estab- 
lished by Congress." 

The said Commission on the 26th day of July, 1894, made the 
following proposition to the Seminoles : 

"Seventh : If an agreement shall be reached with the Seminole 
Nation, a Territorial form of government may be formed by Con- 
gress and established over the territory of the Seminole Nation and 
such other of the five civilised tribes as may have at the time 
agreed to the allotment of lands, and change of government." 

"Ninth : The present tribal government to continue in existence 
until the lands are allotted, and the allottee put in possession, each 
one of his own land, after which a territorial government may be 
established by Congress." 

The Choctaws replying to the proposition of the Dawes Com- 
mission on the T6th day of November, 1896, accepted the proposi- 
tion with regard to the proposed territorial government of the In- 
dian Territory in the following counter proposition: 

"Seventh proposition to be modified so that tribal government 
of the. Choctaw Nation will continue in existence until after the 
lands are divided : Citizens put in possession of their lands, agree- 
ment otherwise put into execution, and a reasonable time for the 
Choctows to adjust themselves to the new lines and their changed 
condition, after ivhich time the United States may create a State 
out of the Indian Territory." 

On December 18. 1896, the United States Commission to the 
five civilized tribes, Henry L. Dawes, Frank C. Armstrong, Archi- 
bald S. McKennon, Thomas B. Cabaness and Alex. B. Montgomery, 
agreed with the Choctaws upon the modification of the Choctav. 
government as follows : 

"It is further agreed in view of the modification of legislative 
authority and judicial jurisdiction herein provided and the neces- 
sity of the continuance of the tribal government, so modified, in 
order to carry out the requirements of this agreement that the same 
shall continue for the period of eight years from the fourth day of 
March, next, this stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal 



19 

«rovernments so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will 
be no need or desire for change, till the lands now occupied by the 
live civilised tribes shall in the opinion of Congress be prepared for 
admission as a State of the Union." 

At a general convention of the Commissioners of the Choctaws, 
Chickasaws, Creeks, Cherokee and Seminole nations at South Mc- 
Alester, November 12, 1896, it was declared by suitable resolutions, 
among other things, that the earnest and repeated insistance of the 
United States demanding a relinquishment of the tribal govern- 
ments would involve the following: 

"Our people must relinquish a government to which they are 
most deeply attached, they must give up their customs and habits 
which they have observed for very many years, and which have be- 
come essential to their happiness. 

"They must conform to duties and habits to which they are 
totally unaccustomed and which would be irksome and unpleasant 
in the extreme, and especially to the thousands of non-Eng-lish 
speaking people." 

"Each individual will have to build new outside fences on 
north and south, east and west lines, according to the lines newlv 
surveyed by the United States." 

"Our citizens will have to move houses, fences, corrals, etc., 
and change their orchards, water supply, fields, etc., and other es- 
tablished improvements, to conform to these new lines of survey." 

"Our citizens would lose their free pasturage of cattle that 
have formerly grazed on the open range, will require the building 
of fences around small pastures for such cattle, and providing neces- 
sary forage for such stock." 

'Our people who have formerly gotten their winter's supply of 
meat and annual food from swine on the open mast, will be com- 
pelled to bring them home and build special close pens and provide 
food for them." 

"Our people will be driven to abandon all the previously con- 
structed roads, and must of necessity build new roads for traveling 
North and South, East and West, which will impose a new ex- 
pense on our people." 

"Our people, will, under the new conditions, be required to 
come in close personal contact with numerous impecunious persons 
from other States, who will endeavor to better their condition in 
the Indian country, and will subject our people to the same line of 
small, exasperating, and aggressive trespassing that drove the In- 
dians in Kansas, the Shawnees, Delawares and Pottaw^atomies and 
others, out of the State for refuge in the Indian Territory." 

This convention also declared as follows : 



20 

"We will never consent to a territorial government or to union 
with Oklahoma Territory." 

"Eighth : When the change of government takes place we will 
ask that the proposed agreement provides admission as a State of 
the Union, with constitutional provisions irrepealable, protecting 
the property rights and the political privileges of our people. The 
constitution to he made by onr ozvii people, with absolute prohibition 
of the liquor traffic." 

"We represent 85,000 sober, industrious, self-supporting and 
God fearing people; owners of the entire soil of the Indian Terri- 
tor}', by solemn treaty and patented title ; people who came to a 
wilderness, driven by force, and made it a cultivated land ; people 
who have erected schools, churches and Courts of Justice and gov- 
ernments under which thev have found safety and happiness." 

"We rely upon the justice of our cause and the guidance of 
Divine Providence and we appeal to the moral sentiment of a great 
and magnanimous nation, in whose hands our ultimate Destiny 
rests and in whose honorable life and history we have earned a 
decent and honorable place." (See correspondence Dawes Commis- 
sion February 18, 1897.) 

On June 28, 1898, the Congress of the United States as a part 
of the Curtis Act, passed the Choctaw and Chickasaw agreement 
containing the provision above referred to as follows: 

"It is further agreed, in view of the modification of legislative 
authority and judicial jurisdiction herein provided, and the neces- 
sity of the continuance of the tribal governments so modified, in 
order to carry out the requirements of this agreement, that the same 
shall continue for a period of eight years from the fourth day of 
March, 1898. This stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal 
governments so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will 
be no need for further change till the lauds nozv occupied by the fize 
civilised tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be prepared for 
admission as a State of the Union." 

The Dawes Commission personally explained repeatedly to the 
representatives of the five nations, that if they would agree to give 
up their tribal governments and land patents they would get an in- 
dependent State for the lands occupied by the five civilized nations. 
For the evidence of this we confidently refer to Honorable A. S. 
McKennon, the surviving member of the Commission, and to Miss 
Anna L. Dawes, daughter of Senator Dawes, and who was present 
and familiar with the proceedings. 

These various treaties and laws constitute a convincing histori- 
cal record showing that from the time of the French Treaty in 1803. 
it was the intention of the United States to erect state governments 



21 

out of the different communities of the Louisiana Purchase, accord- 
ing to the principles so well understood, and that the United States 
bound itself so to do. That, in pursuance of this agreement, the 
United States did so admit Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, 
Ne'braska, Minnesota, Kansas, North and South Dakota, 
Wyoming and Montana, as a matter of right. The United States 
further contracted with the five civilized tribes, as clearly appears, 
that no State or Territory should be extended over them without 
their consent, that they should have the unrestricted right of self- 
government ;' and after the United States determined to establish 
the Territory of Oklahoma as an independent community, separate 
and apart, and had thus established Oklahoma as an inchoate State, 
with officers and laws of their own making, the Linited States, there- 
after, further continued its agreement with the five civilized tribes 
l)y reiterating the promises of the treaties, and providing that out 
of the lands at that tim-e (1898) occupied by the live civiliced 
nations, zvith their consent, should he erected a State. 

Sequoyah is therefore entitled to statehood under the Treaty 
with France, the treaties zmtJi the Hve civilized tribes, the contracts 
and agreements from 1893 ^o 1898, as illustrated by the numerous 
propositions made by the Commissioners of the United States to 
the authorities of the five civilized tribes, as zvell as for other rea- 
sons cited. 

Sequoyah is entitled to Independent Prohibition Statehood. 

For seventy years the United States has maintained prohibi- 
tion in the Indian Territory, because of public sentiment, because 
of the desire of the Indians, and because it is well known that the 
introduction of intoxicants has always proven absolutely ruinous to 
the Indian people. 

In the Cherokee Treaty, it was provided that the United States 
would prevent the introduction of intoxicants. 

On June 28, 1898, the United States contracted with the Choc- 
taws and Chickasaws, as follows : 

"The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the Ter- 
ritory of the Choctaws and Chickasaws against the introduction. 
sale, barter and giving away of liquor and intoxicants of any kind 
or quality." (See 30 Stats., 495.) 

On December 16, 1897 (30 Stats.. 568.), the United States 
contracted with the Seminoles as follows : 

"The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the Semi- 
nole country against the introduction, sale, barter or giving away 
of intoxicants of any kind or quality." 

On May i, 1901. the United States contracted with the Creek 
people (Sec. 43.) as follows: 

"The Ignited States agrees to maintain strict laws in the Creek 



Nation against the sale or barter or giving away of liquors and 
intoxicants of any kind whatever." (31 Stats., 861.) 

Only as a separate State can the people of Sequoyah carry out 
these Federal contracts, because even in Sequoyah there is a consid- 
erable element opposed to prohibition, and in Oklahoma the saloon 
element is strongly dominant, having many millions of dollars in- 
vested, and therefore deeply concerned to alter and amend any 
prohibitory agreement made by a joint State as a condition of ad- 
mission. It is well understood as a matter of law, that Congress 
cannot bind the future State, although it may impose a temporary 
condition of admission. Public sentiment in Sequoyah will maintain 
the government guarantee. Public sentiment in a joint State would 
not be strong enough to carry out this Federal contract, with rela- 
tion to prohibition, and therefore the admission of a joint State, 
even with a prohibition provision, would in effect be merely an 
evasion, and would result in a cruel betrayal of the expectations of 
the Indian people to remain free from the disastrous consequences 
of the liquor traffic. 

On March 7, 1904, the President of the United States sub- 
mitted to Congress the report of Honorable Charles J. Bonaparte 
now Secretary of the Navy, upon Indian Territory (S. Doc., 189-58. 
Con. 2d Ses., p. 25). in which the following declaration of principle 
and fact is made : 

"To appreciate the situation one must remember the obliga- 
tions of the Government to the so-called five civilized tribes. These 
tribes consented to give up their habitation in other parts of the 
United States and remove to the Territory in return for certain 
solemn and explicit pledges made to them by the United States in 
treaties ratified with all constitutional formalities and further evi- 
denced by numerous official documents of the highest authority. 
The removal of these Indians to their new home was decided and 
effected by our Government to serve grave ends of public policy, 
and their consent constituted an ample consideration for the 
promises made them in return. // these promises are not binding 
on the United States, then our Government and people can be 
bound by no treaty. If zve do not scrupidously respect the rights 
Hozving from these treaties, no one can reasonably place confidence 
in our national honor." 

The people of the State of Sequoyah have unshaken confidence 
in the integrity of our Government, and in the preamble of their 
Constitution made the following declaration : 

"Invoking the blessing of Almighty God and reposing faith 
in the constitution and treaty obligations of the United States, we, 
the people of the State of Sequoyah, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution." 



^3 
THIRD. 

Sequoyah Entitled Under the Constitution. 

On July 13, 1787, an ordinance was passed providing for the 
government of the territories of the United States, northwest of 
the Ohio River, in which were laid down the principles which 
should govern the admission of States into the Union. This ordi- 
nance was re-enacted by the first session of the First Congress after 
the adoption of the Constitution. It was maintained in full force 
and never repealed, and is in full force to this day as a principle 
governing the admission of States of the Louisiana Purchase. 

In Section 14 of this ordinance it was provided as follows ; 

"It is hereby ordained and declared by the authorities afore- 
said that the following articles shall be considered as articles of com- 
pact between the original States and the people and States in said 
Territory, and forever remain unalterable, unless by common con- 
sent, to-wit:" 

Then followed the principles of government which should con- 
trol in the formation of new States. 

First. The principle of freedom of worship. 

Second. The principle of civil liberty. 

The third article was, in part, as follows, to-wit : 

"The utmost good faith shall always be observed toward the 
Indians ; their lands and properties shall never be taken from them 
zmthout their consent, and in their property, rights and liberty they 
never shall be invaded or disturbed unless in just and lawful war 
authorized by Congress." 

Article 5 provided, annjng other things, as follows : 

"xA.nd whenever any of the said States shall have 60,000 free 
inhabitants therein, such State shall be admitted by its delegates into 
the Congress of the United States on an equal footing with the 
original States in all respects whatever ; and shall be at liberty to 
form a permanent constitution and State Government; provided the 
constitution and government, so to be formed, shall be Republican, 
and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles, and 
so far as it can be adjusted with the general interests of the Con- 
federacy, such admission shall be allowed at an earlier period, and 
v,/hen there may be a less number of free inhabitants than 60,000." 

These principles of State admission are in full force in 
Sequoyah under the Treaty with France of 1803 relative to the 
Louisiana Purchase. . 

Under this latter provision, Indiana was admitted with 24,520 
people; Ohio with 45.365 people; Illinois with 55,211 people. 



24 

Subsequent to this ordinance of 1787 the Constitution of the 
United States was estabhshed in 1787-88, in which appears the fol- 
lowing provision : 

"Art. 4, sec 3. New States may be admitted by Congress into 
this Union, but no new State shall be formed or erected within the 
jurisdiction of any other State, nor any State be formed by the 
junction of two or more States, without the consent of the legisla 
ture of the States concerned, as well as Congress." 

"Sec. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in 
this Union a Republican form of Government and shall protect eacli 
of them against invasion." 

By Article 6, paragraph 2, of the Constitution the treaties were 
made the supreme law of the land, and on April 30, 1803, the 
United States entered into a Treaty with France in which reference 
was made to the principles above set forth as to the right of ad- 
mission as States of the Union, and the following contract was 
agreed upon as to the inhabitants who might be found to occupy 
the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, as follows to-wit : 

"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated 
ill the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible 
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjoy- 
ment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the 
United States." 

\Yhen the State of Arkansas was admitted on June 15, 1836 
(5 Stats., 50), in the preamble to its constitution it recited: 

"We, the people of the Territory of Arkansas, by our repre- 
sentatives in convention assembled, having the right of admission 
into the Union, by virtue of the authority of cession by France of 
the Province of Louisiana, etc." 

This State was admitted on this basis. 

Congress thus conceded her admission as having a treaty right 
according to the principles of the Federal Constitution. 

It is therefore perfectly obvious that under principles laid down 
in the Constitution of the United States and the ordinance of 1787, 
which principles became effective in the Louisiana Purchase under 
the Treaty with France, that Sequoyah is entitled to admission as 
a State of the Union, and that it has a right to establish a consti- 
tution for the government of its own people in accordance with the 
principles laid down in the ordinance of 1787, and that it is the duty 
of the United States to admit the State of Sequoyah according to 
the principles of the Federal Constitution under which Ohio, In- 
diana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee. 
Arkansas, and other States have been admitted in the past. But not 
onlv by constitutional right and an unbrc^ken line of precedents are 



we justitied in claiming the rights of statehood, the Act of June 28, 
1898, commonly known as the Curtis Act, fully acknowledged our 
right being in effect an enabling act, which reserved to Congress 
only the right of determining the date of our admission to the 
Union. 

It is not according to the principles of the Federal Constitution 
that our community should be merged with some other community, 
against the wishes of both communities. 

It is not according to the principles of the Federal Constitution 
that we be denied the right of self-government, which is enjoyed 
by other citizens of the United States. Under the Constitution we 
are entitled as a separate community and inchoate State to our own 
self-government, according to its true and proper interpretation. 

It is well understood that our people are exceedingly dissatisfied 
with bureau government, and the government of the Indian Com- 
mittees of the House and Senate on the Indian Appropriation Bills 
which annually pass Congress. 

Under such a method of government our community, while 
rapidly progressing cannot make the advance possible under a bet- 
ter and more stable condition of government. 

It has been suggested that the people of our State would rather 
have a half loaf than no bread, that they would be willing to com- 
promise their rights of full statehood in order to have the right of 
being half a State, that they would be willing to sacrifice their 
treaty rights and their natural rights in order to obtain half of that 
to which they are justly entitled. 

We respectfully submit that our Republic might exercise its 
great power and deprive us of a full measure of justice, but that 
such an act would be odious and against the interest, not only of 
our people, but against the interest of the Republic itself, which 
cannot afford to do an act which would be regarded by many of its 
people as an act of bad faith made far worse because done to a 
powerless and distressed people. 

Shall our own Government, on whose nobility we rely, take 
advantage of our distress to extort and wring from us the surrender 
of our conceded treaty contract rights? 

Are we to be humiliated and denied any relief unless we con- 
sent to compromise the debt for half? 

We respectfully demand, and shall continue to demand, how- 
ever irksome and distressing, the pay of the Government obliga- 
tions at par. The debt will not be compromised by us. It must be 
paid or repudiated. Repudiation of its obligations will be a new 
page in the history of our great Republic. 



26 

Sequoyah Entitled to Admission by Precedent. 

In various instances States have been made out of other States, 
but in no instance have States and Territories been forced together, 
and no such right was granted the United States in the Constitution. 

The Constitution of the United States, Art. 4, Sec. 3, provides : 

"No new State ^hall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction 
of any other State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two 
or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legis- 
lature of the State as well as of the Congress." 

It was under the above section of the Constitution that Vermont 
was carved out of New York, Kentucky from Virginia, Maine from 
Massachusetts, Tennessee from North Carolina, and West Virginia 
from Virginia. The people of these States organized themselves, 
and in due course were admitted as a matter of right, under the 
terms of the Constitution. 

In admitting Maine Congress declared that : 

"The people of that part of Massachusetts heretofore known 
as the District of Maine, did with the consent of the legislature oi 
said state of Massachusetts, form themselves into an independent 
State and did establish a constitution for the government of the 
same." 

And thereupon the Act for admission declared : 

"Maine to be one of the United States of America." 

The States of the Northwest Territory, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. 
Michigan, and Wisconsin, were admitted as a matter of right, under 
the ordinance of 1787, continued in force by an Act of the first Con- 
gress, after the adoption of the Constitution. 

Tennessee was ceded to the United States by the State of North 
Carolina with the same rights as secured by the ordinance of 1787, 
to the inhabitants of the territory northwest of the Ohio River, and 
was admitted as a matter of right. 

The States of Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and nine 
other States of the Louisiana Purchase, were admitted as a matter 
of right under the third article of the Treaty with France of April 
30, 1803, to-wit: 

"The inhabitants of the ceded Territory shall be incorporated 
into the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as pos- 
sible according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the 
enjoyment of all the rights, advantages and immunities of citizens 
of the United States." 

Florida was in like manner admitted as a matter of right under 
the Treaty with Spain of Februrary 22, 1819, to-wit : 

"Art. 6. Inhabitants of the territory which his Catholic 
Majesty cedes to the United States by this Treaty shall be incor- 



27 

porated into the Union of the United States as soon as may be con- 
sistent with the principles of the Federal Constitution, and admitted 
to the enjoyment of all the privileges, rights and immunities of citi- 
zens of the United States." (8 Stat. 252.) 

In like manner Utah, California, Nevada, Colorado were 
admitted to the Union under the Treaty with Mexico of February 2, 
1848. 

Previous Enabling Acts N^ot Necessary. 

Tennessee, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Kansas. 
Oregon, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, Arkansas, Florida, West 
Virginia, Wyoming, and Idaho, as well as Vermont, Kentucky and 
Maine held contsitutional conventions without the authority of m 
enabling act of Congress, and in many instances these were first 
recognized as States and then admitted to the Union by the Con- 
gress of the United States as a matter of right. 

When Wyoming was admitted, the Act of Congress recited 
(26 Stat. 222) : 

"Whereas the people of the Territory of Wyoming, did on the 
third day of September, 1889. by convention of delegates called and 
assembled for the purpose of forming for themselves a constitution, 
which constitution was ratified and adopted by the people of said 
Territory, at the election held therefor, on the first Tuesday in 
November, 1889, which constitution is Republican in form and is in 
conformity with the Constitution of the United States, and whereas 
said convention and the people of the said Territory have asked 
admission of said Territory into the Union, as a State, on an equal 
footing and with equal rights." 

Wyoming was thereupon declared to be a State of the United 
States, and the constitution they had formed was ratified and con- 
firmed. 

Idaho in like manner was admitted July 3, 1890 on her own in- 
itiative as a matter of right. (26 Stats. 215.) 

With these precedents and well established rights Sequoyah 
, feels fully justified, as an inchoate State, in establishing her con- 
stitution and submitting it to Congress for approval. 

Sequoyah is entitled to separate Statehood because the people 
to be governed wish it. The wishes of our people are shown by our 

vote. 

The wishes of the people of Oklahoma have been heretofore 
frequently declared by its representatives. 

The delegate to Congress from Oklahoma, to the 57th Con- 
gress, Honorable D. T. Flynn, assured Congress that the people of 
Oklahoma desired a separate State. 



28 

Honorable B. S. McGuire, delegate to the 58th Congress from 
Oklahoma made the same representations, and he was confirmed 
in his statements by Ex-Governor A. J. Seay of Oklahoma, and Ex- 
Governor C. M. Barnes of Oklahoma, and by Honorable C. M. 
Cade, Chairman of the Republican Executive Committee. (See 
Exhibit B.) Oklahoma has recently appeared to acquiesce in the 
proposition made in the 58th Congress to merge Oklahoma and 
Indian Territory, because Oklahoma has been assured by her dele- 
gate that the Congress of the United States would not grant them 
separate Statehood. It avails nothing that such advice was not com- 
pletely authorized. It has served the purpose of reducing the people 
to the silence of despair. But is it honorable for a Government to 
deny a Territory its full right in order to coerce its people to accept 
the forced compromise of half its due? 

FOURTH. 

What is more important to the Republic itself than the per- 
formance of justice to three-fourths of a million of its children in 
Sequoyah, entitled as they are by every legal and natural right to 
separate and independent Statehood? 

What is more important to the Republic itself than the main- 
tainance of its honor before all the world, and especially before its 
own sons and daughters, by the faithful performance of its duties. 
its pledges, and the scrupulous fulfillment of its contracts? 

The United States stands as a beacon light to all the Nations 
of the world, white, black, yellow, and red, civilized and uncivi- 
hzed, as a people whose standard of integrity is the most exalted 
and this reputation of the United States places it upon the highest 
pinnacle of all that is great and honorable, and makes every race 
and Nation look to it as the hope and inspiration of the entire human 
race. It is to the interest of the Republic itself to maintain this high 
standard. 

One of our great national sayings is "That in Union there is 
strength," but the best form of union is that union which rests 
upon absolute justice, upon perfect reciprocal confidence and upon 
a square deal to all of its constitutent parts; upon the unshakable 
faith of every part of the union in the integrity of our government ; 
upon the sincere affection and devotion of every part of the Union, 
based upon the fact that absolute reliance can be placed upon the 
fidelity of our government to its every obligation. 

FIFTH. 

Sequoyah is Entitled by the Pledges of Both National Parties. 
Both of the great national parties of the United States have 



29 

pledged the people of the United States that they favored the ad- 
mission of the Territories at the earliest practicable moment. The 
Republican National Convention in 1892 declared as follows: 

"We favor the admission of the remaining territories at the 
earliest practicable date, having a due regard to the interests of the 
people of the United States." 

In 1896 the Democratic National Convention declared: 

"We favor the admission of the Territories of Arizona, New 
Mexico and Oklahoma into the Union as States, and we favor the 
early admission of all the Territories, having the necessary popula- 
tion and resources to entitle them to statehood." 

In 1896, the Republican party in National Convention declared : 

"We favor the admission of the remaining Territories at the 
earliest possible date, having due regard for the interests of the peo- 
ple of the Territories of the United States." 

In 1900 the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia 
declared : 

"We favor home rule for and the early admission to statehood 
of the Territories of New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma." 

If Oklahoma were admitted as a State, who could then deny 
the State of Sequoyah like admission? 

The Democratic Convention in Kansas City in 1900, declared : 

"We denounce the failure of the Republican party to carry out 
its pledges to grant statehood to the Territories of New Mexico, 
Arizona and Oklahoma. We promise the people of these Terri- 
tories immediate statehood and home rule during their condition as 
Territories." 

The Democratic National Convention in St. Louis, in 1904, 
declared : 

"We favor the admission of the Territories of Oklahoma, and 
Indian Territory. We also favor the immediate admission of 
Arizona and New Mexico as separate States and Territorial gov- 
ernment for Alaska and Porto Rico." 

Are these pledges to the nation of no avail ? Is it possible that 
they will be consciously or wilfully evaded and broken? 

SIXTH. 

Sequoyah is entitled because it involves the welfare and the 
interest of the great Mississippi Valley, the future home of untold 
millions of people. 

It is impossible for the full productive capacity of the vast 
domain of the State of Sequoyah to be developed under a bureau 
Sfovemment. 



30 

No Indian citizens, except a small fraction, have a right to 
lease their lands for oils and minerals, except under difficult tech- 
nical rules and regulations, which generally retard the progress of 
the oil and gas, coal and asphalt developments of Sequoyah. Until 
we have statehood the agricultural products and the full contribu- 
tion of the State of Sequoyah to the great export trade of the 
United States must remain a fractional part of what would be un- 
der a perfect right of free self-government. 

The development of our full productive capacity is of im- 
portance to the great Mississippi Valley, and we believe to the 
Union itself, because our great exports mean a substantial addi- 
tion to the wealth of the whole Union from New York to San 
Francisco. 

SEVENTH. 

Union with Oklahoma, which has been suggested, would vio- 
late the Treaty with France of 1803, and the principles of the ordi- 
nance of 1787, and of the Constitution of the United States which 
does not permit Congress to merge two separate and independent 
communities together. 

It would violate the treaty agreement with the Choctaws and 
Chickasaws of 1830, with the Cherokees of 1835, with the Creeks 
and Seminoles of 1856, in which they were guaranteed the unre- 
stricted right of self government, and that no State or Territory 
should be extended over them without their consent. 

It would violate the spirit and the letter of the Treaties of 1866 
with the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, with the Cherokee Na- 
tion and with the Creek and Seminole Nations. 

It would violate the Acts of Congress of March 3, 1893, and 
of June 28, 1898. 

It would violate the representations and promises made to the 
five civilized tribes by the Dawes Commission. 

It would violate the recent pledges made by the United States 
to maintain prohibition forever in the lands occupied by the five 
civilized tribes. 

It would do violence to the wishes of the people of Sequoyah. 

It would be contrary to the wishes of the people of Oklahoma. 

It would be taking a grossly unfair advantage of the necessi- 
ties of the people of Sequoyah and of the people of Oklahoma, as 
a means of forcing them to an ignoble compromise. 

It would violate every precedent in the previous admission of 
States, which never, in the history of the Republic, has witnessed 
the merger of two States or of two Territories even with their con- 
sent, much less against their consent. 



31 

It would refuse tt) extend to the people of Sequoyah and of 
Oklahoma their natural right of independent self-government. It 
would compel the people of Sequoyah to support all the State in- 
stitutions established by another community and located in a sec- 
tion of country separate and apart from their own. It would com- 
pel the people of Sequoyah to go into a bitter contest with the 
saloon element of Oklahoma in the matter of prohibition. 

It would compel the people of Sequoyah to consult the authori- 
ties of Oklahoma in regard to defending the people of Sequoyah 
against the great railroad suits now pending, when such interfer- 
ence might be disastrous. 

It would compel the people of Sequoyah to consult the people 
of Oklahoma with regard to their management and laws relating 
to every detail of life, when there are well known great differences 
of sentiment between the two communities. 

The enormity of this wrong can only be conceived by propos- 
ing as an illustration that Maryland should have the right to pass 
laws for the government of Virginia, or that Connecticut should ex- 
tend its policies and methods over the State of Rhode Island, or 
Pennsylvania over the people of New Jersey. 

The people of Sequoyah would feel it to be an unspeakable 
wrong, to which thev will never consent. 

EIGHTH. 

In view of the aboxe treaty and contract rights and urecedents 
early in July, 1905. the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation 
and the Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation joined in the follow- 
mg call for a Constitutional Convention: 

STATEHOOD CONSTITUTIONAL CALL. 

To the Loyal, Patriotic Citizens, Greeting: 

In view of the fact that the Government will complete allotting 
the Indian lands by the close of the fiscal year, the removal of re- 
strictions and a settlement made with the Five Civilized Tribes by 
the Secretary of Interior, thus fully preparing the said country for 
a form of self-government at the said juncture ; and the tribal rela- 
tions cease by sanction of the several treaties on March 4, 1906 ; 
and it is not American or equitable, nor necessary to longer govern 
the aforesaid country, wholly by Federal Government, as at pres- 
ent, which is necessary in the absence of a Federal Territory or a 
commonwealth ; the Five Civilized Tribes unanimously favor and 
seek separate, prohibition and independent statehood : the said pri\-i- 
leges allowed bv existing and inevitable treaties: and 



3^ 

Whereas, no form of procedure for the organization ui new 
States is prescribed by the United States Constitution, or by any 
law of Congress, each case has been dealt with as it presented itself. 
Tn some cases Congress has taken the initiative by the passage of 
enabling acts ; in others the movement has originated with the peo- 
ple of the proposed State, and Congress has, by appropriate acts, 
accepted and ratified the Constitution and State government pro- 
posed. Thirty-two new States ha^•e been added to the original 
thirteen. In the cases of Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michi- 
gan, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, California and Oregon, there were 
no enabling acts. In the case of Nevada a constitution was formed 
without any enabling act, but was rejected by the people. The 
second constitution was formed under an enabling act. In the 
case of Wisconsin the constitution formed under the enal)ling act 
was rejected by the people and subsequently a new constitution was 
called which formed the constitution under which the State was 
finally admitted, and 

Whereas, to deny the people of the Indian Territory, or anv 
Territory the right to assemble in popular convention and to pro- 
pose to Congress the admission of such territory or anv part thereof 
mto the Union, as a State, is to deny rights which we believe are 
guaranteed by the constitution. So long as the movement is 
subordinated to the constitution of the United States and to the 
existing territorial authorities, so long as the proposed State gov- 
ernment is only such and assumes no function of an existing gov- 
ernment, but awaits the recognition of Congress, the proceedings 
are justified by safe and abundant precepts, and do not carry anv 
suggestion of a disloyal spirit or involve any danger of a conflict 
of authority; and 

Whereas, such is the attitude of Indian Territory, and she has 
made herself ready and now respectfully, but urgently, asks to be 
endowed with the dignities and privileges of an American State : 
and 

Whereas, the time is ripe to prepare, seek, and ask for a change 
of government and for a commonwealth ; 

Therefore, we deem it proper, just, right and prudent to call. 
and do call a constitutional convention for the Indian Territory, to 
convene in Muskogee on the 21st day of August. 1905. for the pur- 
pose of drafting and framing a grand and up to date constitution. 
and selecting a capitol and name for a new State carved out of the 
Indian Territory; and 

Therefore, we empower the several mayors of the recording 
towns of the Indian Territory to act as chairman, and we respect- 
fully call the people of their respective recording districts to gather 
in each recording town, en masse meeting, at 1 1 :oo a. m. on the 



33 

/th day of August, 1905 (with notice in the recording" town's news- 
paper), for the purpose to elect seven delegates and seven alternates 
to the constitutional convention at IMuskogee, Ind. Ter., to effect 
an organism for a new State convention. Then 30 days thereafter 
to submit the new chosen constitution, name and capitol to the pop- 
ular vote of the people for approval and to the next Congress for 
that body's ratification. 

Principal Chiefs 

W. C. ROGERS, 

Cherokee Nation. 
GREEN McCURTAIN. 
J. A. NORMAN; Choctaw Nation. 

Secretary of Call. 

Within a few days thereafter the following supplement to the 
above call was added, the call as thus amended being all approved 
and signed by the Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation, the Prin- 
cipal Chief of the Creek Nation, the Principal Chief of the Seminole 
Nation and the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, was pub- 
lished and circulated throughout all pars of the Indian Territory. 

We, the Chief Executives of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, 
and Creek Nations, have in conference agreed to carry out the call 
for a Constitutional Convention made by the Principal Chief of the 
Choctaw Nation, and the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, 
for August 21, 1905, it being adequate and binding upon all the 
Nations under their compact to convene at the call of any one of the 
Chiefs upon such matters as he may deem of vital interest. 

With reference to the selection of delegates and alternates to 
represent the several Recording Districts of the Indian Territory, 
to be chosen on August 7, 1905, the Chief Executives will exercise 
supervision over all recording district conventions, in their respect- 
ive Nations, provided that where a recording district is in two or 
more Nations, that jurisdiction over such district shall vest in the 
Chief Executive of the Nation wherein the recording town is lo- 
cated. 

The original call for this convention is hereby modified and 
extended as follows. 

On or before the 5th day of August each Chief Executive in 
jurisdiction as above specified will designate such person as he deems 
proper to act as presiding officer of said mass meetings for the selec- 
tion of such delegates and alternates. 

If for any reason such presiding officer should not appear and 
preside, then the meeting is authorized to fill the vacancy. A list of 
delegates and alternates selected at such meetings shall at once be 
certified by the Chairman to the Chief Executives of such Nations 
and such certificates thereupon being endorsed by said Chief Execu- 



34 

rives shall constitute the credentials necessary to entitle such dele- 
gates and alternates to membership in the Constitutional Convention 
to be held August 21, 1905. The Convention when assembled shall 
have full power to direct its subsequent proceedings. 

W. C. ROGERS, 

Principal Chief Cherokee Nation. 
GREEN McCURTAIN, 

Principal Chief Choctazv Nation. 
P. PORTER, 

Principal Chief Creek Nation. 
J. F. BROWN, by P. PORTER, 

Principal Chief Seminole Nation. 
GEORGE W. SCOTT, Secretary. 

Secretary's Address Kinta, I. T. 

Under the above call so supplemented and fully published dele- 
gates were chosen to represent all the Recording Districts in the 
Indian Territory. 

These delegates assembled in the City of Muskogee ori August 
21, 1905, organized a Constitutional Convention for the Indian Ter- 
ritory, including the Ouapaw Agency, and adopted the Constitution 
of the State of Sequoyah. This constitution was extensively and 
thoroughly distributed, advertised and discussed by the people of 
all parts of the Indian Territory for sixty days. On November 7, 
1905, at a public election, for which polling places were established 
to suit the convenience of every neighborhood, the people of the 
State of Sequoyah ratified, said constitution by an afiirmative vote 
of 56,279, as against a negative vote of 9,073. 

The significance of this vote for the ratification of the consti- 
tution will be better appreciated by a comparison with the votes for 
ratification of the first constitutions of some other States : 

State. Date. Affirmative. Negative. Total. 

Texas 1845 4,i74 312 4,486 

Iowa 1846 9,492 9,036 18,528 

Wisconsin 1848 16,442 6,149 21,591 

Minnesota 1857 36,240 700 36,940 

Kansas 1861 10,421 5,830 15,951 

West Virginia 1862 18,862 514 19.376 

Nebraska "^ 1866 3,938 3,838 7,776 

North Dakota 1889 27,441 8,107 35^548 

South Dakota 1889 37,7io 3,414 41,124 

Montana 1889 24,676 2,274 26,950 

Washington 1889 40,152 11,879 52,031 

Wyoming 1889 6,272 1,923 8,195 

Sequoyah 1905 56.279 9.073 . 65.352 



35 

( The above figures, as to States already in the Union, are 
taken from Harper's Encyclopaedia of U. S. History.) 

The said constitution was thereupon declared to be adopted 
by the people of the State of Sequoyah, and a copy thereof, as re- 
quired by the constitution, was submitted to the President of the 
United States for transmission to Congress. 

The constitution thus adopted and ratified has secured the 
formally expressed assent of the five civilized tribes to the change 
in their governments which it has been so solemnly and repeatedly 
promised them should never be made without their consent. The 
Principal Chief of the Creek Nation in joining in the Call for the 
Constitutional Convention acted under the advice of the leading- 
members of the National Council, as shown in the accompanying- 
paper. (See Exhibit C.) The National Council of the Choctaw 
Nation formally expressed its approval of the organization and 
constitution of the State of Sequoyah. -(See Exhibit D.) The 
National Council of the Chickasaw Nation formally expressed its 
approval of the organization and constitution of the State of 
Sequoyah. (See Exhibit E.) The National Council of the Chero- 
kee Nation formally expressed its approval of the organization and 
constitution of the State of Sequoyah. (See Exhibit F.) 

It will be observed that the Indian authorities, in the Call for 
the Constitutional Convention invited all electors of the Indian Ter- 
ritory, non-citizens as well as citizens of Indian tribes to participate 
freely in the election of its members; also that the convention 
when assembled and organized was clothed with full authority and 
power to take all such further steps as might be found necessary for 
accomplishing- the purposes for which it w^as called. 

It will also be observed that the election for the ratification 
of the constitution on November 7, 1905, w^as held under approved 
rules and the administration of a non-partisan election board com- 
posed of gentlemen whose capacity and integrity are above question. 
' It will thus be seen that we have in a regular and constitutional 
way taken every step which should prepare and entitle us to recog- 
nition as a State of the Union, and that all legal obstacles to such 
recognition have been effectively and satisfactorily removed. We 
therefore, relying upon the- absolute justice of our cause, most re- 
spectfully appeal to the Congress of the United States as the repre- 
sentatives of the people of our great Republic, to extend to us the 
full measure of justice to which we are obviously entitled, and that 
the State of Sequoyah be admitted, without further delay, into the 
Union, on an equal footing with the other States. 



36 

On behalf of the people of the State of Sequoyah, I have tlie 
l.onor to submit for your approval the constitution of this State. 
Yours ^•erv respectfullv, 

P. PORTER, 
President of the Constitutional Convention 

of flte State of Sequoyah. 
ALEXANDER POSEY. 
Secretary. 

EXHIBIT A. 

Protest Prom Creek National Council. 

We, your memorialists, the national council of the Muscogee or 
Creek Nation in regular session assembled, realizing that the Indians 
of the Eive Civilized Tribes, namely, the Creeks, Choctaws, Chicka- 
saws, Cherokees. and Seminoles, must soon discontinue their tribal 
relations and assume the responsibilities of the United States citizen- 
ship ; and knowing that the Indians of the Five Tribes would be 
more fully protected in their property holding, and therefore better 
satisfied with their new surroundings if permitted to have a hand in 
shaping the policy of the government under which they will live in 
the near future : and knowing that the Indians would have more in- 
fluence in the organization of a State formed out of Indian Terri- 
tory alone, hereby adopt the recommendations of the chief execu- 
tive of the Five Civilized Tribes issued in convention at Eufaula. 
Ind. T., May 21, 1903. 

This convention was the outcome of a meeting held by the In- 
dians of the Five Tribes at the same place on November 28, 1902, 
when they protested against any legislation by Congress whereby 
Jndian Territory may be organized into a territorial government, 
or be annexed to Oklahoma, prior to March 4, 1906, the date fixed 
in the late agreement with the said Five Tribes for the dissolution 
of their tribal governments. The desire of the Indians is that a 
State be formed of Indian Territory upon the dissolution of their 
tribal governments in order that the}^ may incorporate in the con- 
stitution a provision prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors in 
the new State. 

A prohibition clause could not be embodied in a constitution of 
a State formed by the union of Oklahoma and Indian Territory. 
because Oklahoma is now a saloon Territory. 

It is well known that the political, civil, and religious condi- 
tions of the Indians in the Territory of Oklahoma are serioush- 
afifected bjr the liquor traffic, which is nowhere more arrogant than 



Z7 

in Oklahoma. The extension of the hquor business over Indian 
Territory is earnestly desired by the wholesale liquor dealers of 
the United States. The daily papers of the Middle West have pub- 
lished the statement that the liquor dealers have already pooled their 
uiterests and arranged to maintain a strong lobby in Washington 
until the Indian Territory is made a part of Oklahoma. The Creek 
people maintain a high standard of morality and religion which 
will, beyond any doubt, be seriously lowered, if not totally destroyed 
if they be exposed to the baneful influences of free saloons. This 
consideration alone should receive the careful attention of Congress. 
Congress has at all times prohibited the introduction or sale 
of intoxicants in this country, as will be shown by the acts of Con- 
gress quoted below ; and w-e believe there was not a time when the 
Indians needed protection more from that evil than they will when 
they become citizens of an independent State and shall no longer 
be under the control of Congress and the Department of the Interior. 
"No ardent spirits shall be introduced, under any pretense, into 
the Indian country." (Sec. 2139, Rev. Stat.) 

"The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in said nation 
against the introduction, sale, barter, or giving away of liquors or 
intoxicants of any kind whatsoever." (Creek agreement of March 
I, 1901.) 

The United States has guaranteed us against absorption by 
other States or Territories without our consent, and has also as- 
sured us of separate statehood for Indian Territory. 

"The United States do solemnly agree and bind themselves 
that * * * no portion of either of the tracts of country de- 
fined in the first and second articles of this agreement shall ever be 
embraced or included within, or annexed to, any Territory or State 
* * * without the full and free consent of the legislative au- 
thority of the tribe owning the same." (Creek Treatv, August 
4. 1856.) 

The last Act of Congress, which also was the entering wedge 
for the description of the Indian governments of the Territory, in 
defining the objects for which the commission to the Five Civilized 
Tribes (Dawes Commission) was created, reads as follows: 

"With a view to such an adjustment upon the basis of justice 
and equity as may, with the consent of such nations or tribes of In- 
dians, so far as may be necessary, be requisite and suitable, to enable 
the ultimate creation of a State or States of the Union which shall 
embrace the lands within the Indian Territorv." (Act of Congress 
of 1893.) 

The Five Tribes do not base their appeal for a separate State 
alone on the pledges of the United States Government. 



38 

The area, population, mineral resources, and fertile soil of their 
country are in themselves sufificient to entitle them to separate state- 
hood. 

In area the Indian Territory is twenty-nine times as large as 
Rhode Island, sixteen times as large as Delaware, six times as 
large as Connecticut, four times as large as New Jersey, almost 
four times as large as Massachusetts, three times as large as New 
Hampshire, three times as large as Vermont, and three times as 
large as Maryland. 

Indian Territory has 6,000 square miles more than West Vir- 
ginia, 1,500 square miles more than Maine, 1,200 more than South 
Carolina, is practically the size of Indiana, and is four-fifths the size 
of either Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia or Tennessee. 

According to the census of 1900, the population of the Indian 
Territory was 392,060, which exceeded the population of seven 
States and five Territories, namely: Nine times that of Nevada, 
six times that of Alaska, four times that of Wyoming, three times 
that of Arizona, twice that of Hawaii, twice that of Delaware, twice 
that of Idaho, twice that of New Mexico, 148,000 more than 
Montana, 113,000 more than District of Columbia, 115,000 more 
than Utah, 72,000 more than North Dakota. 

Since the last census emigration to the Indian Territory has 
been enormous, and it is safe to say that the present population 
exceeds that of either Oklahoma, Oregan, Rhode Island, South 
Dakota, Washington, Colorado, Florida, or New Hampshire. 

In natural resources the Indian Territory is not surpassed by 
any State in the Union. Oil and natural gas have been developed 
in each of the Five Nations, but on account of the holding of the 
lands in common have not been operated. 

The same condition obtains with reference to lead, zinc, tin. 
and other minerals. The coal and asphalt deposits of the Indian 
Territory are superior to those of any State in the Southwest. The 
coal industry is but in its infancy, and yet the annual report of the 
United States mine inspector for the year ending June 30, 1903. 
will show that during the year more than 3,000,000 tons of coal 
were mined in the Choctaw Nation alone. In each of the other 
nations are extensive fields of coal which are being rapidly de- 
veloped and operated. 

The Indian Territory has the most productive soil, four-fifths 
of which may be profitably farmed. Citizens of the Five Tribes 
have been prominent in the upbuilding of the Indian Territory, and 
are to-day foremost in all enterprises for its permanent develop- 
ment. Proof of this is, thaf of the board of seven commissioners, 
selected to cooperate with the Interior Department in management 



39 

of the Indian Territory exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion, five are citizens of the Five CiviHzed Tribes. 

The citizens of the Five Tribes are quahfied to organize a 
vState government, and, in asking that they be permitted so to do, are 
not ignoring the non-citizens of Indian Territory, )t)ut, on the con- 
trary, are sohciting their advice and cooperation, and are assured 
of their hearty support. 
Therefore be it 

Resolved by the National Council of the Muscogee Nation : 
Section i. That we most earnestly and respectfully request 
that the Congress of the United States fulfill the sacred pledges 
made to the Indians of the Five Tribes, and permit them, together 
with the non-citizens of Indian Territory, to organize a State em- 
bracing the lands now occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes, to be- 
come effective at the expiration of the several tribal governments 
on March 4, 1906. 

Sec. 2. That we emphatically protest against any legislation 
by Congress providing for the annexation of the Indian Territory 
fo Oklaohoma, either in whole or in part, or for a Territorial form 
of government for Indian Territory, either now or hereafter. 

Sec. 3. That the private secretary of the principal chief is 
hereby instructed to furnish certified copies of this memorial to the 
chairman of the Committee of the Five Civilized Tribes, who is 
directed to forward copies to the President and Secretary of the 
Interior, with the request that the latter transmit the same to 
Congress. 

Sec. 4. These resolutions to take eft'ect and be in force from 
and after passage and approval. 

Adopted, December 15, 1903. , ' ^ =- 

ALEX. DAVIS, 
Speaker of House of Representatives. 
MILDRED CHILDERS, 

Clerk 
JAMES SMITH, 

Presid. H. Kings. 
SAM GRAYSON. 

Clerk. 
Concurred in. 

Resolutions of Eufaula Convention, May 21. 1903. 

Whereas, the United States Government in the several treaties 
with the Five Civilized Tribes, under which the present tribal goy- 
emments were organized, guaranteed that the limits of no State or 



40 

Territory should ever be extended around the Five CiviHzed Tribes 
without their consent, and in the act of Congress of June 28, 1898 
(30 Stat. L., 495), agreed that the lands now occupied by the Five 
Civilized Tribes should, when prepared, be admitted as a State of 
the Union; and , 

Whereas, we believe that the Indians of the Five Civilized 
Tribes are opposed to any territorial form of government for In- 
dian Territory, either now or hereafter, and to any legislation by 
Congress whose object is the absorption by Oklahoma of the Indian 
Territor}', in whole or in part; and 

Whereas, we feel that some method should be adopted whereby 
the Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes may, by popular vote, 
determine whether or not they are in favor of statehood for' Indian 
Territory separate from OklalK^ma after the expiration of their 
tribal government : Therefore, 

We, the chief executives and representatives of the Five 
Civilized Tribes assembled at Fufaula, Creek Nation, May 21, 1903, 
do hereby make the following recommendations, the Cherokee and 
Chickasaw executives concurring: 

1. The chief executive of each nation shall, in his next message 
to the general council of his nation, recommend legislation authoriz- 
ing the chief executive to call an election to decide whether or not 
the members of his nation are in favor of an international conven- 
tion. This convention shall be composed of 20 delegates from eacli 
of the Five Civilized Tribes, and shall be held for the purpose of 
framing a constitution for a State government to succeed the several 
tribal governments which expire by treaty provisions on March 4. 
1906. The chief executive shall also recommend that the general 
council prescribe a plan for selecting delegates to the international 
constitutional convention. The general council of each nation 
shall instruct its delegates to incorporate in the constitution a pro- 
vision prohibiting the sale of intoxicating lic[uors within the 
boundaries of the State to be formed out of the Indian Territory. 

2. We recommend that the citizens of each nation vote for the 
constitutional convention. 

3. We recommend that each nation hold said election not later 
than December 20, 1903, and that said election be held in the same 
manner as other elections are held in the several nations. The votes 
cast in each nation shall be certified by the precinct officers and for- 
warded to the chief executives. The chief executives of the five 
nations shall constitute a board of commissioners, who shall canvas 
and count the votes cast in each nation, and issue proclamation of 
the result not later than January to, 1904. If a majority of the 
qualified voters of the five nations are in favor of a constitution 
convention, the convention shall be held. 



41 

4- We recommend that the international constitutional conven- 
tion be held not later than February i, 1904. 

5. We recommend that the general council of each nation, at 
its next session, memorialize Congress for statehood separate from 
Oklahoma, to become effective March 4, 1906, and that such 
memorial be transmitted to Congress, the President, and the Secre- 
tary of the Interior. 

6. We further recommend that the general council of each 
nation address a memorial to the various religious and temperance 
organizations of the United States, requesting them to assist the 
Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes in their efforts to prevent the 
annexation of the Indian Territory to Oklahoma, and to secure a 
State government for Indian Territory under a constitution which 
will protect the Indian from the baleful influence of intoxicating 
liquors. 

7. Knowing that the non-citizens of the Indian Territory (not 
members of either of the Five Civilized Tribes) prefer separate 
statehood for Indian Territory, and realizing that the combined 
efforts of the non-citizens and the Indians will cause Congress to 
favorably consider our demands, we recommend that the non- 
citizens hold a convention and ratif}- the constitution framed b)- the 
convention of the Five Civilized Tribes, or propose whatever 
amendments they deem proper should amendments !)e pro- 
posed by the non-citizens, their convention shall appoinr 
a committee of two persons from each nation. This com- 
mittee shall meet a like committee appointed by the convention of 
the Five Civilized Tribes, and these two committees shall constitute 
a conference committee of 20 persons, who shall adjust all differ- 
ences in the constitution. 

8. The president of the constitutional convention of the Five 
Civilized Tribes shall appoint two delegates from each of the Five 
Nations. These ten delegates shall invite the cooperation of a like 
number of delegates appointed by the convention of the non-citizens, 
and the two delegations shall take the constitution adopted by the 
conference committee and proceed to Washinp-ton and urge Con- 
gress to pass an enabling act authorizing the people of Indian Ter- 
ritory to vote upon the ratification of this constitution, for members 
of the House of Representatives of the United States, and for all 
elective ofificers provided for by the said constitution. 

Memorial of the Cherokee Nation protesting against the union of 
the Indian Territory, and especially the Cherokee Nation, with 
Oklahoma. 

Whereas, the question of single statehood, by a union of In- 
dian Territory with Oklahoma, is now being agitated by the public 
press, and hv public meetings and otherwise; and 



42 

Whereas, a call has been issued and given wide publication 
requesting that delegates shall meet at Muscogee, Indian Territory, 
on the fourteenth day of November, nineteen hundred and one, ex- 
pressly favorable to the admission of Oklahoma and the Indian Ter- 
ritory as a single State, and to memorialize the Congress of the 
United States urging such action or admission ; and 

Whereas, to incorporate the Cherokee Nation at present within 
a State or Territorial form of government without our consent, and 
holding our lands and annuities in common as we do, would be a 
dangerous menace to our common property interests and in direct 
violation of the most solemn treaty pledges made to us by the 
United States, inasmuch as the new State or Territorial govern- 
ment would be represented and ruled by non-citizens who have no 
interest with us in our lands and money, but who would most cer- 
tainly pass radical legislation disposing of or destroying our said 
valuable interests and rights ; 

Now, therefore, this memorial to His Excellency, the Presi- 
dent, and to the honorable Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States of America, respectfully and humbly showeth ; 

It is the sense of the National Council of the Cherokee Nation 
in regular session assembled, that it would not be conducive to the 
best interests and happiness of the Cherokee people for the Cherokee 
Nation to be included, at present, within any State or Territorial 
form of government ; that their common property interests and 
valuable treaty rights would be endangered thereby ; that the actions 
of those who are instigating and agitating this single statehood 
move are hereby emphatically denounced as fundamentally wrong 
and unjust to the Cherokee people. 

That any and all resolutions and memorials purporting to come 
from Cherokee citizens are hereby declared to be not from real 
Cherokees, but from non-citizens, who have no interests in our 
property. 

The Cherokee Nation hereby earnestly protests against any 
kind of union with Oklahoma, and against being included, without 
its consent, within the limits of any State or Territorial form of 
government whatsoever at the present time, and an appeal is hereby 
made to His Excellency, the President, and the Congress of the 
United States, for the protection of the people of the Cherokee 
Nation, the owners of the land, to the end that these statehood 
promoters may not be successful in carrying out their proposition. 

Adopted by the Senate November 14. 1901. 

WOLF COON, 
President of the Senate. 
S. F. PARKS, 
Clerk of the Senate. 



43 

Adopted by the council branch November 14, 1901. 

M. V. BENGE, 

Speaker of Council. 
C. S. SHELTON, 
Clerk of Council. 
Approved November 14, 1901. 

T. M. BUFFINGTON, 

Principal Chief. 

Executive Department, Cherokee Nation. 

Tahlequah, Indian Territory, March 18, 1904. 
A correct copy of the original as of record in this department. 
[seal.] WILSON O. BREETON, 

Executive Secretary. 



Hon. Edward L. Hamilton, 

Chairman of Committee on Territories, 

Washington, D. C. 

Sir : On behalf of the Indians of the Choctaw Nation I most 
emphatically protest against the enactment by Congress of any 
legislation that seeks in any way to abrogate that portion of the 
Atoka agreement that guarantees that the lands of the Five Civi- 
lized Tribes in Indian Territory shall be admitted as a separate 
State of the Union. The Atoka agreement among other things pro- 
vides as follows : 

"This stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal govern- 
ments so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will be no 
need or desire for further change until the lands now occupied by 
the Five Civilized Tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be pre- 
pared for admission as a State to the Union." 

This agreement was negotiated by representatives of the 
United States Government and representatives of the Choctaw and 
Chickasaw nations, and was enacted into law by Congress on June 
28, 1898 (30 Stat., 495). I was a member of the commission 
representing the Choctaw Nation, and recall that the representatives 
of the United States Government wrote in that agreement the pro- 
vision above quoted as an inducement to the Five Civilized Tribes 
to make agreements. The Indians of the Five Tribes have always 
been solicitous about their status when their tribal governments 
should cease. That solicitude was repeatedly expressed by the In- 
dians while we were considering the Atoka agreement. As a re- 
sult the United States commissioners made the guarantee just men- 
tioned, which became to the Indians one of the most favorable pro- 
visions of the agreement. 



44 

However, this was but a reiteration of the solemn guarantees 
made to the Five Tribes when the United States Government first 
sought to make treaties with them whereby the Indians rehnquished 
their lands east of the Mississippi and moved to the Indian Terri- 
tory. In the treaty of 1828 with the Cherokee Nation of Indians 
the United States Government used the following language : 

"Whereas It being the anxious desire of the Government of 
the United States to secure to the Cherokee Nation of Indians a 
permanent home, and which shall, under the most solemn guarantee 
•of the United States, be and remain theirs forever — a home that 
shall never in all future time be embarrassed b)'^ having extended 
around it the lines or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territorv 
or State, nor be pressed upon by the extension in any way of 
any of the limits of any existing Territory or State." 

Again, in 1835, in a treaty with the Cherokees, language even 
more forcible was used, as follows : 

"Article 5. The United States hereby covenant and agree that 
the lands ceded to the Cherokee Nation in the foregoing article 
shall in no future time, ivithoiit their consent, be included within 
the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory." 

In 1856 the United States Government made an agreement 
with the Creeks and Seminoles. and article 4 of the agreement con 
tains the following guarantee : 

"The United States do hereby solemnly agree and bind them- 
selves that no State or Territory shall ever pass laws for the gov- 
ernment of the Creek or Seminole tribes of Indians, and that no 
portion of either of the tracts of country defined in the first and 
second articles of this agreement shall ever be embraced or included 
within or annexed to any Territory or State, nor shall either, or any 
part of either, ever be erected into a Territor}^ without the full and 
free consent of the legislative authority of the tril^e owning the 
same." 

An agreement was made with the Choctaw Nation in 1830. 
whereby the United States Government guaranteed that — 

"No Territory or State shall ever have the right to pass laws 
for the government of the Choctaw Nation of red men and their 
descendants: and that no part of the land granted them shall ever 
be embraced in any Territory or State." 

These quotations from the earlier agreements, considered in 
connection with the Atoka agreement of 1898, show conclusivelv 
that the United States Government has, always intended that the 
lands of the Five Tribes in Indian Territory should finally be ad- 
mitted as a separate State. It shows also that the lands of the 
Five Tribes can not be annexed to or become a part of any Terri- 
tory or State without the consent of the Indians. The Indian ^ of 



45 
the Five Tribes have so interpreted the language of these agree- 

'T]C!irS. 

I pause to remind you, and through you the Congress of the 
United States, that the friendship of the Choctaw people for the 
United States Government has existed for more than a century. 
The most memorable proof of that friendship was furnished by 
Pushmataha, the great Choctaw warrior and friend of President 
Jackson, when he raised several regiments of Choctaw warriors 
and rendered valuable assistance to the United States Government 
at a most critical period in her early history. That friendship has 
continued unabated through the years. When the United States 
Government sought to make agreements with the Indians of Indian 
Territory whereby their lands might be allotted, their property 
divided, and their tribal governments dissolved, the Choctaw peo- 
ple were the first to accede to the request of the Government. They 
made and ratified the first agreement, namely, the Atoka agreement, 
so often referred to in this letter. 

Afterwards it was found that the Atoka agreement would have 
to be amended in some particulars in order to finally settle all our 
tribal affairs. The Choctaw people readil)^ complied with the re- 
quest of the honorable Secretary of the Interior and negotiated an 
agreement supplemental to the Atoka agreement, commonly called 
the supplementary agreement, ratified by Congress July i, 1902. 
and by the Choctaw people on September 25, 1902, but that agree- 
ment in no way modified that portion of the Atoka agreement 
guaranteeing to us a separate State for Indian Territory. 

So firmly were the members of the Five Civilized Tribes of the 
opinion that the United States Government would observe the 
various provisions above quoted that, at my suggestion, the chief 
executive of each of the Five Tribes appointed representatives to 
an international convention to formulate plans that would acquaint 
Congress with the Indians wishes as to the kind of government that 
should be erected here at the expiration of the several tribal gov- 
ernments. The plans were outlined in a convention held at Eufaula, 
Creek Nation, Indian Territory, May 21, 1903. and for your in- 
formation I inclose herewith a copy of the resolutions there adopted. 
I might add that these resolutions represent the A'ery best thought 
of the leading men of each of the Five Tribes, and I most earnestly 
request that they receive the careful consideration of your com- 
mittee, and that Congress enact legislation embodying the ideas 
therein set forth. 

I would further state that the Indians of the Choctaw Nation 
carried out these resolutions to the letter. December 19, 1903. they 
held the election provided for in section 3 of the resolutions. At 
that election votes were cast for the plans therein outlined, and 



46 

only votes were cast against them. This fact is a most elo- 
quent indorsement of the plans, and shows conclusively that the 
Indians of the Choctaw Nation are unalterably opposed to the 
union of Indian Territory and Oklahoma. 

Adverting to that section of the resolutions which provides 
that the constitution of the new State shall prohibit the sale of in- 
toxicating liquors, I desire to say that the Choctaw people are 
warmly in favor of prohibition, but they request that Congress will 
either make the prohibition absolute or not embody it in the con- 
stitution at all. 

In other words, it would be very distasteful to the Indians of 
the Five Tribes for Congress to require that the constitution of the 
new State shall discriminate between citizens of Indian blood and 
citizens without Indian blood. In theory, the Indian loves liquor; 
in practice, he is not as bad as the Irish. 

There is a widespread tendency to classify the Indians of In- 
dian Territory with the reservation Indians, which are maintained 
by the Government in several States, including Oklahoma Territory. 
I fear this impression prevails even in Congress. The Indians of 
the Five Tribes object to being classified with the reservation In- 
dians. Thus far the policy of the United States with reference to 
those Indians has been to keep them principally on the reservations, 
and they have been slow to take part in political affairs. Having 
no experience in matters of government they are possibly not quali- 
fied to assume the responsibilities of United States citizenship. 

But the Indians of Indian Territory have had their own gov- 
ernments for nearly a century, and are thoroughly competent by 
actual experience to become citizens of a State and to intelligently 
participate in the administration of its afifairs. Moreover, we are 
acquainted with the non-citizens of Indian Territory. They know 
us. We have been neighbors for many years, and our earnest wish 
is that we be made citizens of a State with them. We object to be- 
coming citizens of a State with the people of Oklahoma. They 
know us not ; neither do they know that we are qualified in every 
respect to take part in the formation and in the administration of a 
State government. Not only that, the people of Oklahoma being 
accustomed to the reservation Indians, would be inclined to classify 
us with them, and thus be prejudiced against us and our rights. 

Our friends in Congress must not forget that, comparatively 
speaking, there are but few full-bloods in Indian Territory, and 
that a great majority of them are thoroughly capable of taking care 
of themselves and of their own affairs. The Indians of the Five 
Tribes have never been reservation Indians ; they have always been 
self-sustaining. For nearly a century they have been taking care 



47 

of themselves and of their personal affairs, and have been intimately 
identified with the affairs of government. 

Inasmuch as the Choctaw Nation is the only tribe that held the 
election provided for in the inclosed resolutions, the question 
naturally arises. Why did the other tribes not hold their elections ? 
The councils of the Creek and Seminole nations passed resolutions 
authorizing the appointment of delegates to the constitutional con- 
vention. The Cherokees and Chickasaws took no action, although 
1 know by correspondence and conversation that they are heartily 
in favor of the plans. A reason that operated strongly upon the 
tribes is that they can not appropriate money except by approval of 
the President of the United States. 

They- were naturally apprehensive that the President might 
not approve acts appropriating the money with which to hold the 
elections and pay the expenses of the constitutional convention. 
Furthermore, the severe criticisms indulged in by a non-citizen press 
at home and abroad, who favor the union of Oklahoma and Indian 
Territory, so thoroughly discouraged the Indians of the other 
nations that they lost active interest in the movement. The In- 
dians having failed to hold their constitutional convention, it was 
impossible for the non-citizens to perform the part assigned them 
in the Eufaula resolutions. It must also be borne constantly in 
mind that there is such diversity of opinion in Congress on the ques- 
tion of statehood legislation for Indian Territory that it is impossi- 
ble for the Indians and non-citizens here to unite on any plan to 
Congress. 

However, I express the sentiment of the great majority of the 
Indians of the Five Tribes when I say that we are in favor of any 
statehood that Congress may provide, so long as it is statehood for 
Indian Territory alone, independent of Oklahoma. In this connec- 
tion I invite your attention to a memorial passed by the general 
council of the Choctaw Nation in October, 1903, and addressed to 
the Senate and House of Representatives, in which they protested 
against the annexation of Indian Territory, giving their reasons 
therefor at length. A copy of the memorial is inclosed herewith. 

In conclusion, permit me to say that the inclosed resolutions 
of the Eufaula convention recite the moral obligations resting upon 
the United States Government to maintain its treaty obligations 
inviolate, and that the inclosed memorial advances with great 
perspicuity the manifold material reasons why the Indian Territory 
should be admitted as a separate State of the Union. However, I 
assure you that the Indians of the Five Tribes will not insist upon 
Congress giving us statehood legislation drawn in strict conformity 
with the resolutions of the Eufaula convention. Ixit they will stead- 



48 

fastly insist that statehood legislation be drawn in conformity with 
the provision of the Atoka agreement herein qnoted. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 
Respectfully, 

GREEN McCURTAIN, 
Principal Chief of Choctaw Nation. 

To the Senate and House of Kepresentotii'es of the United States 
of America' in Congress assembled : 

We. your memorialists, the general council of the Choctaw 
Nation in regular session assembled, realizing that the Indians of 
the Five Civilized Tribes, namely, the Choctaws. Chickasaws, 
Creeks, Cherokees, and Seminoles, must soon discontinue their 
tribal relations and assume the responsibilities of United States 
citizenship, and knowing that the Indians of the Five Tribes would 
be more fully protected in their property holdings, and therefore 
better satisfied with their new surroundings if permitted to have a 
hand in shaping the policy of the government that succeeds their 
tribal governments, and knowing that Indians would have more 
mfluence in the organization of a State formed out of Indian Ter- 
ritory than they would have if a State were formed by the union 
of Indian Territory and Oklahoma, hereby adopt the recommenda- 
tions of the chief executive of the Five Civilized Tribes issued in 
convention Eufaula, Ind. T., May 21, 1903. 

This convention was the outcome of a meeting held by the 
Indians of the Five Tribes at the same place, November 28, 1902. 
when they protested against any legislation by Congress whose ob- 
ject was the annexation of the Indian Territory to Oklahoma or^ 
Territorial form of government prior to March 4, 1906. 

The Indians desire a State formed out of the Indian Territory 
at the expiration of their several tribal governments, in order that 
they may incorporate in the constitution a provision prohibiting the 
sale of intoxicating liquors. A prohibition clause could not be em- 
bodied in a constitution for a State formed by the union of Indian 
Territory and Oklahoma, because Oklahoma is now a sah^on Ter- 
ritory. 

It is w'ell known that the political, civil, and religious condi- 
tions of the Indians in the Territory of Oklahoma are seriously 
affected b)'^ the liquor traffic, which is nowhere more arrogant than 
in Oklahoma. The extension of the liquor business over the In- 
dian Territory is earnestly desired by the wholesale liquor dealers 
of the United States. The daily papers of the Middle West have 
published the statement that the liquor dealers have already pooled 
their interests and arranged to maintain a strong lobbv in \\''ash- 



49 

ington until the Indian Territory is made a part of Oklahoma. The 
Choctaw people are inclined to morality and religion ; yet if ex- 
posed to the liquor influence of Oklahoma our present high stand- 
ard of morality and religion will be lowered. 

It is also reported that all the great railroad corporations whose 
lines traverse the Indian Territory desire the annexation of Indian 
Territory to Oklahoma, and that they will have a strong lobby in 
\\'ashington to work for that purpose. 

The treaty of 1830, under which this Territory was segregated 
from the public domain of the United States as a continuing home 
for the Choctaw people, solemnly guaranteed : 

"That no part of the lands granted them shall ever he em- 
braced in any Territory or State." 

The Atoka agreement of 1897, ratified by act of Congress. 
June 28, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 495), commonly called the "'Curtis 
Act," after providing that the tribal governments, as modified by 
that instrument, should continue until March 4, 1906, says : 

"This stipulation is made in the belief that the tribal govern- 
ment .so modified would prove so satisfactory that there wcnild be 
no need or desire for further change until the lands now occupied 
by the Five Civilized Tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be 
prepared for admission as a State to the Union." 

Ag-ain, the United States Government has maintained the 
strictest laws prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors within the 
Indian Territory. The agreement of 1897 and the act of Congress 
of 1898, above referred to. contains that law: 

"The United States agrees to maintain strict laws in the terri- 
tory of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes against the introduction, 
sale, barter, or giving away of liquor and intoxicants of any kind 
or quality." 

Practically the same provisions appears in the agreement witli 
each of the Five Tribes. This protection was claimed by the In- 
dians, and was readily assented to by the Commissioners on the part 
of the United States, and enacted into law by Congress. Union 
with Oklahoma as a State means a total disregard of these pledges 
and that protection. 

Section 7 of the said resolutions of the chief executives pro- 
vides for the cooperation of the non-citizens of the Indian Terri- 
tory. The Indians are not ignoring the non-citizens in this move- 
ment; they are soliciting their cooperation, and are assured of their 
hearty support. 

The Five Tribes do not base their appeal for a separate State 
solely on the pledges of the United States Government. The area, 
population, mineral resources, and fertile soil entitle them to a State 
for their Territory. 



50 

In area the Indian Territory is 29 times as large as Rhode 
Island, 16 times as large as Delaware, 6 times as large as Con- 
necticut, 4 times as large as New Jersey, almost 4 times as large 
as Massachusetts, 3 times as large as New Hampshire, 3 times as 
large as Vermont, 3 times as large as Maryland. 

Indian Territory has 6,000 square miles more than West Vir- 
ginia; 1,500 squares miles more than Maine; 1,200 more than South 
Carolina, is practically the size of Indiana, and is four-fifths the 
size of either Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, or Tennessee. 

The Choctaw Nation alone is larger than either Rhode Island, 
Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, Vermont, or Maryland. 

According to the census of 1900 the population of Indian Ter- 
ritory was 392,060, which exceeded the population of 7 States and 
5 Territories, namely: Nine times that of Nevada, 6 times that of 
Alaska, 4 times that of Wyoming, 3 times that of Arizona, twice 
that of Hawaii, twice that of Delaware, twice that of Idaho, and 
twice that of New Mexico. 

Indian Territory had a population of 148,000 more than 
Montana, 113,000 more than the District of Columbia, 115,000 
more than Utah, and 72,000 more than North Dakota. 

The population of Indian Territory in 1900 was greater than 
that of Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Alaska combined. Since 
the last census immigration to the Indian Territory has been 
enormous, and it is safe to say that the present population exceeds 
that of either Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, 
Washington, Colorado, Florida, or New Hampshire. 

In natural resources the Indian Territory is not surpassed by 
any State in the Union. Oil and natural gas have been developed 
in each of the five nations, but on account of the holding of lands 
in common have not been operated. The same condition obtains 
with reference to lead, zinc, iron, and other minerals. The coal 
and asphalt deposits of the Indian Territory are superior to those 
of any State in the Southwest. The coal industry is but in its in- 
fancy, and yet the annual report of the United States mine inspector 
for the year ended June 30, 1903, will show that during that year 
more than 3,000,000 tons of coal were mined in the Choctaw Nation 
alone. In each of the other nations are extensive fields of coai. 
which are being rapidly developed and operated. In the Choctaw 
and Chickasaw nations approximately 444,000 acres of coal and 
c'sphalt land have been reserved from allotment. These lands will 
be sold at public auction to the highest bidder in 640 and 960 acre 
tnrls 

The Indian Territorv has the most producti\"e soil, four-fifths 
of which mav 1:»e profitably farmed. Two-fifths liave never been 



51 

touched by the plow. Wheat, oats, corn, and cotton and most any 
product of the soil may be grown here. Crop failures are un- 
known. 

Citizens of the Five Civilized Tribes have been prominent in 
the upbuilding of the Indian Territory and are to-day foremost in 
all enterprises for its permanent development. Proof of this is that 
of the board of seven commissioners selected to cooperate with the 
Interior Department in the management of the Indian Territory ex- 
hibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition five are citizens of the 
Five Civilized Tribes. 

The citizens of the Five Tribes are qualified to organize a State 
government, and the Choctaws, through their general council, ask 
that they be permitted to carry out the plans of the chief executives. 

Therefore, 

Be it resolved by the general council of the Choctaiv Nation in 
regular session assembled : 

Section i. That we most earnestly and respectfully request 
that the Congress of the United States fulfill the sacred pledges 
made to the Indians of the Five Tribes and permit them and the 
citizens to organize a State out of the lands now occupied by the 
Five Civilized Tribes at the expiration of the several tribal gov- 
ernments. 

Sec. 2. That we emphatically protest against any legislation 
bv Congress providing for the annexation of Indian Territory to 
Oklahoma either in whole or in part or for a Territorial form of 
government for Indian Territory either now or hereafter. 

Sec. 3. That the national secretary is hereby instructed to fur- 
nish certified copies of this memorial to the chairman of the Five 
Civilized Tribes committee, who is directed to forward copies to 
the President and Secretary of the Interior with the request that 
the latter transmit the same to Congress. 

Sec. 4. These resolutions to take effect and be in force from 
and after passage and approval. 



Headquarters REri'BLicAN Territorial Committee. 

Guthrie, July 8, 1903. 
To Rtpublican members of Congress: 

At a meeting of the Republican Territorial conimittee of Okla- 
homa, held in the city of Guthrie, June 22, 1903, the undersigned 
were appointed a committee to prepare and present to Republican 
members of Congress a statement of the claims of the Territory to 
statehood, and especially to present the views of the committee as 
to the political considerations involved. 

In the performance of that duty we address ourselves to you 



52 

as Republicans having a common interest in the \\elfare of the Re- 
piibHcan party, and firmly believing that wliat we ask would con- 
tribute strength and not w-eakness to its organization, nor danger 
to its future success and ascendancy. In the determination of our 
future relations to the country and to party organizations we are 
powerless, and can only petition and supplicate those who hold our 
destinies in their control. But we feel assured that in presenting 
our cause to Republican Senators and Representatives in Congress 
we shall receive an attentive hearing and an impartial consideration 
of the facts we bring to their attention. 

Assuming that the partisan political results that would follow 
the admission of Oklahoma as a State will enter largely into your 
consideration and materially affect your judgment, we shall ask 
your attention chiefly to that feature of the subject. But before 
doing so we desire to speak l)riefly of the general qualifications of 
Oklahoma for statehood. 

AREA. 

Oklahoma eml)races 39,030 sqaure miles and is larger tiian 
thirteen States now in the Union. She is larger than Indiana, and 
falls so slightly below Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia as to 
be practically of the same size. The average of all the States lying 
east of the Mississippi River is 33,910 s(|uare miles. Oklahoma ex- 
ceeds that average by over 5,000 square miles. 

In estimating the relative size of Oklahoma to the States, it is 
misleading to count against her uninhabitable swamps, mountain 
ranges, and barren plains. In productive acres and in her capacity 
to sustain a large population she exceeds twenty-eight States of the 
Union — or more than half of them. Her lands are nractically alT 
fertile and tillable, except in one county attached on the northwest, 
chiefly devoted to stock raising. 

If from the large States west of the Mississippi uninhabitable 
swamps, rock ranges, and barren plains were eliminated, and only 
productive and inhabitable lands w'ere considered. Oklahoma wou.ll 
not fall below the average of Western States. 

In 1899, ^s shown by the census of 1900, the number of acres 
cultivated in cereals in Oklahoma gave her a rank relatively to the 
States of twenty-fourth, 21 States falling below her. In wheat 
production she was fifteenth, in cotton tenth, in oats eighteenth, and 
in corn seventeenth, thus showing that her rank at that time in the 
production of the leading crops was above an average of the States. 

But since then her cultivated acres have increased about 50 per 
cent. Besides the general reduction to cultivation of new lands 
throughout the Territorv, three new counties have been added anrl 



53 

settled and five others, then chiefly occupied as cattle pastures, have 
been largely occupied and improved b}^ homestead settlers. So thai 
at this time in cultivated acres and general agricultural productions 
Oklahoma is not lower than fifteenth in rank with the States. As 
evidence of this we point to the fact that when the census of 1900 
gave her rank as fifteenth in wheat production her yield was 20,000.- 
000 bushels. This year, those most competent to make a safe esti- 
mate, place the crop at 35,000,000 bushels, an increase ot over 70 
per cent, and which makes her rank as eighth in wheat productions. 

In other crops the increase has not been so great ; l)ut it has 
l:)een great enough to warrant us in saying, without exaggeration, 
{hat in cultivated acres and in general agricultural productions Okla- 
h.oma's rank with the States is not lower than fifteenth and thai 
she exceeds 30 of them. 

In view of these facts, we submit that it is not just — that it is 
an inexcusable perversion of the truth — to say, as has been said 
by prejudiced interests, that Oklahoma would make a "rotten 
borough" and a "blot on the map." If so, the larger blots would 
be so numerous that Oklahoma would scarcely be perceptible. 

INDU.STRIES AND WEALTH. 

The chief interest in Oklahoma at this time is agriculture, but 
important manufacturing interests are being established in several 
cities, in which large amounts of capital are being invested. Some 
of them are now in flourishing operation. Large wholesale houses, 
carrying stocks that successfully compete with those of the great 
centers of trade, exist in three or four of our young cities. 

No mining interests of importance have yet been developed, 
but discoveries of lead, zinc, coal, gas, and oil have been made, 
and some of them promise to develop into valuable interests. Sev- 
eral oil wells are now in operation. 

The assessment of taxable property for the present year was 
$72,400,000. Assessments were made on about one-fifth valuation, 
but much property was assessed at a still lower rate: so that the 
actual value of assessable property is over $360,000,000. If to this 
were added the value of untaxable lands still held by homesteaders 
— which must be more than $25.000,000 — the total wealth would 
fall but little if any below $400,000,000. 

On July I last, the Territory contained 235 banks, with de- 
posits of $25,000,000. 

The assessment of railroad mileage for the present year shows 
that on February i last there were 2,458 miles of railroad in opera- 
tion, including side tracks, and 330 miles of finished grade. Since 



54 

then rails have been laid on the finished grade, making in all 2,788 
miles of railroad in operation. Several other roads are now in 
course of construction, and by the end of the present year the total 
mileage will be about 3,200, and Oklahoma will then rank as twenty- 
first in railroad mileage. 

POPULATION. 

GROWTH OF CITIES. 

The census of 1900 gave Oklahoma a population of 398,331, 
But a conservative and safe estimate at this time would not be less 
than 600,000. Since that census was taken most' of our leading 
towns and cities have more than doubled, and many new towns 
have been established on the new lines of railroad. 

(Note. — The assessment given above is that of last year. 
That of the present year is $84,155,023.) 

In 1900 the Territory contained only two towns having over 
3,500 inhabitants, and these contained 10,037 and 10,006 respec- 
tively. There are now six cities having from 10,000 up to 25,000, 
as recent enumerations show, while there are many containing from 
2,000 to 6,000 that were then villages or had no existence. And 
it is inside the facts to say that in the growth of towns and cities 
75.000 have been added to our population since June, 1900. 

NEW COUNTIES. 

Since that time, also, the three counties formed out of the 
Kiowa, Comanche, and Caddo reservations have been added, and 
now contain a population of over 70,000. 

In 1900 five western counties were largely held and occupied 
as cattle ranches. They have since been almost entirely taken up 
and occupied by homestead settlers, whereby not less than 60,000 
more have been added. 

These estimates make our present population over 600,000. 
But to this must also be added a general increase throughout the 
Territory. We have no means of estimating this increase with 
safety, but it has been considerable, and a total estimate of 600,000 
is entirely safe and reliable. 

Assuming this estimate to be correct, Oklahoma has a popula- 
tion greater than either of 15 States now in the Union had in 1900; 
and it is increasing with a rapidity that will soon place her in 
advance of several others. 



POLITICAL. 

STEADY REPUBLICAN GAINS. 

We believe that conditions are such that Oklahoma could be 
depended upon as a reliable Republican State, and we submit the 
following reasons for our opinion : 

In 1894 the vote of the Territory for Delegate to Congress was 
as follows: Republican, 20,449; Democratic, 12,058; Populist, 
15,988. Combining the opposition vote and there was a majority 
of 7,597 over the Republicans. A little later Greer County — a 
strong Democratic county — was attached from Texas, thus making 
a combined opposition majority of about 9,000. 

In 1896, by a fusion of the opposing elements, the Republican 
candidate for Delegate was defeated by 1,164 votes. Since then 
the Republicans have never failed to elect the Delegate, although 
they have regularly been opposed by a fusion of the opposition. In 
fact, the Republicans have never failed to elect the Delegate except 
in that year. In that year also — when fusion was at the height of 
its strength — they lost the legislature, also. With that exception, 
the Republicans never failed to elect a majority of the legislature 
until last year, when they lost it by one vote only, on a joint count 
of both branches. And this loss was due to local divisions in two 
or three Republican counties, over county-seat locations, which 
resulted in the election of Democrats, and was not due to political 
causes. 

It should be remembered also, that in the election of legislatures 
the Republicans have had no advantage from gerrymandering in 
the formation of districts. Councilmen and representatives have 
usually been elected from counties, and county lines have been dis- 
turbed as little as possible, and the Republicans have been placed 
at a disadvantage, rather than benefited by it. 

FAVORABLE INFLUENCES. 

Attention is called to the fact that since 1894 the Republicans 
have steadily gained, until they have practically overcome an ad- 
verse majority of 9,000. One of the influences which has favored 
them has been the steady departure of Democrats from the Terri- 
tory, and the influx of northern immigration. In the original open- 
ings'of new lands by which the Territory was settled, a considerable 
nulnber of settlers came from Texas, all of whom were Democrats. 
Most of them have sold out to northern farmers and returned to 
Texas. They are not contented to live where a northern element 
predominates. The surroundings and associations are not con- 



56 

genial. They do not even fraternize hannoniousl}^ with northern 
Democrats, and sharp jealousies and prejudices have everywhere 
developed. There are counties where many Texans originally set- 
tled in which not a solitary Texan remains. In two or three border 
counties where a larger element from Texas settled, the induce- 
ments to emigrate have not been so strong; but they are slowly 
yielding even there. 

In the settlement of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Caddo reserva- 
tions in 1901, the proportion of Texans who came in and obtained 
claims was quite large; but their exodus is going on. The lands 
bordered on Texas and their opportunity was favorable. But north- 
ern farmers are buying their lands and occupying them, and the 
Texans are returning to more congenial locations. At the election 
last fall, the aggregate Democratic majority for Congressional Dele- 
gate in the three counties formed from those reservations was only 
576. and it will continue to decrease. 

ANOTHER SOURCE OF STRENGTH. 

But a future re-enforcement of Republican strength, which is 
a safe reliance, will come from the dissolving forces of the Populist 
party. As we have shown, their vote in 1894 was over 15,000. That 
strength was chiefly composed of former Republicans. They came 
mostly from Kansas. Many of them were old soldiers, and a large 
majority of them were Republicans in everything except their finan- 
cial hobbies. They believed in protection, and in the general ideas 
of the Republican party, outside of financial questions. And they 
can never become Democrats. Their organization is now disinte- 
grating, and they are returning to the Republican fold. The health- 
ful financial conditions, and the general prosperity of the country — 
which they predicted was impossible under Republican measures- 
have demonstrated so conclusively that they were wrong, and that 
the Republican party was right, that they no longer assert their 
theories, and have lost interest in their organization. Their leaders 
who, through fusions wnth the Democracy, have been able to secure 
local offices, have heretofore held them together for that purpose; 
but they can do so no longer. And their return to the Republican 
])arty is certain, and can be relied on with safety. It is not prob- 
able that even a pretense of an organization will be maintained 
through anc^ther campaign, and if it should be, it could not control 
the discontented and demoralized forces that have heretofore sus- 
tained it. They see neither hope nor purpose in further continuing 
a broken down and hopeless organization. 

The increased strength which will come from this source will 
be sufficient alone to make Oklahoma's Republican majorities de- 
cisive and permanent. — if they were otherwise questionable. 



0/ 

It should not be overlooked that since 1894 the Republicans 
liave, in every campaign, confronted two political parties of nearly 
equal strength, well united and organized, and has been beaten but 
once, and that that condition can not occur again. The practical 
abandonment of the Populist party as a national organization, to- 
gether with its disappearance in most of the States, will discourage 
further efforts in Oklahoma. In fact it is conceded that the organ- 
ization will not be continued. Whatever votes may come to the 
Republican party out of the Populist wreck will to that extent 
weaken the opposition with which we have heretofore contended 
and add correspondingl}^ to the Republican strength. If we seciu-e 
only one-third or one-half of it, it would make the Republican ma- 
jority so strong and decisive as to place the State, if created, out 
of the list of even doubtful States. 

A MISTAKEN SITUATION. 

A condition which those who are remote from Oklahoma do 
not seem to understand or realize is, that although the Territory is 
situated in the South it is practically a northern Territory : they do 
not know or comprehend that her people are almost entirely north- 
ern ; that their habits, social conditions, sympathies, and political 
tendencies are northern and not southern. It seems to be assumed 
that her southern location determines, in all respects, her status as 
a southern Territory. The facts are that the percentage of southern 
people is very small and is steadily growing less : that the immigra- 
tion into the Territory is almost exclusively from the north : that 
if it were located in the position of Kansas or Nebraska its immigra- 
tion would not be different from what it is. Several lines of rail- 
road from northern directions make it as easily accessible to north- 
ern people as any other western locality. And they have entered 
in to possess the land. They possess it now. Its attractive climate, 
fertile soil, and varied productions have made it the chief center of 
northern immigration for several years, and it is especially so at this 
time. Southern emigration does not come here any more than it 
goes to Kansas or Nebraska : except as it came at the original "open- 
ings," and has since receded before the uncongenial multitudes from 
the north. That emigration goes to the Indian Territory and to 
other localities where social and political conditions are more in- 
viting. Practically none of it comes here now. 

Oklahoma is southern in her location, but in all else she is 
as northern as Kansas or Nebraska, except as to two or three coun- 
ties bordering on Texas, and these are fast being captured and 
appropriated by northern money and energv'. 

These conditions surely warrant us in saying with absolute 



58 

confidence that Oklahoma would make a reliably Republican State. 
We believe that if she could participate in the Presidential election 
next year her vote for the Republican candidate would be as sure 
as that of Ohio or Indiana. Of this we have no doubt whatever. 
And she would continue to grow in Republican strength as the in- 
fluences we have mentioned continue to operate. 

A REPUBLICAN STRONGHOLD IN THE SOUTH. 

At no other point on the map has Republicanism pushed itself 
so far south and gained so permanent a foothold as in Oklahoma. 
It is a stronghold in the "enemy's country," and its influence and 
example can be of great usefulness in the future. It ought to be 
encouraged and protected, and not smothered and crushed under 
the weight of the Arkansas and Texas Democrats who will control 
the Indian Territory. 

GOOD FAITH INVOLVED. 

The people of Oklahoma came here not doubting that they 
would have the right to govern themselves, and to enjoy conditions 
similar to those they left behind them when they left their northern 
homes. To crush them now and destroy their identity as an inde- 
pendent people by forcing them into political subjection to Texas 
and Arkansas Democrats, who constitute a large majority of the 
people of the Indian Territory, would be a grievous wrong and 
?. political blunder. To make the Territory they have created a 
mere appendage, or a helpless part of a State ranking in political 
character and conditions with Texas and Arkansas, would be a 
monstrous injustice, and a cruel disappointment to thousands of 
people whose habits and character, and whose efforts in Oklahoma, 
entitle them to a better fate. 

Unless there are overwhelming reasons demanding such a 
sacrifice, and justifying it, it should not be made. It would be a 
wrong which only extreme necessity could excuse. 

WHAT STATEHOOD MEANS. 

Again, single statehood means a permanently Democratic 
State and two Democratic Senators. Statehood for Oklahoma 
means a Republican State and two Republican Senators. And if 
the Indian Territory should at some future time be made a State 
the Republican party would have preserved at least equal senatorial 
representation from the two States. Why then should two Senators 



59 

be given to the Democrats with no chance for an equivalent Repub- 
lican representation? The argument that Oklahoma is too small 
to make a respectable State will not justify such a sacrifice of politi- 
cal power ; for it is not true, as we have abundantly shown. 

Oklahoma comes clothed with material strength and resources 
never equaled nor even approached by any other applicant for state- 
hood. She represents evidences of her Republicanism which we 
think should be accepted as sufficient, without hesitation. And if 
the Republicans in Congress, through mistake as to facts, or for 
any other reason should strangle an unborn Republican State and 
sacrifice senatorial power by surrendering Oklahoma to the control 
and domination of the most objectionable element of the Democratic 
party as it flourishes in the Indian Territory, a blunder will have 
been committed which those who make it will never cease to regret. 

DECEPTION AND FRAUD. 

Systematic methods of fraud, carefully planned and adroitly 
executed, have been persistenly resorted to for the transparent pui 
pose of deceiving and misleading Republican members of Congress 
as to the political situation in Oklahoma. The leaders of the Demo- 
cratic party in the Territory, recognizing that Oklahoma would in- 
evitably make a Republican State, are tireless and unscrupulous, 
and even desperate, in their efforts to accomplish a union with the 
Indian Territory. To this end their efforts are directed to convey- 
ing to Republican Senators and Representatives the opinion that 
Oklahoma can not be relied on to make a Republican State ; and 
thus to secure their cooperation in preventing her admission, excepi 
in conjunction with the Indian Territory. 

A FRAUDULENT CONVENTION. 

We can not undertake to expose all the devices that have from 
time to time been resorted to, but we ask attention to one or two of 
them which have been most conspicuous, and which have, perhaps, 
had to some extent the effect intended. 

During the pendency of the omnibus statehood bill in the 
Senate last winter — to which they were opposed, because of its 
provisions with reference to the Indian Territory — under their 
manipulations, a statehood, convention was called to meet at Okla- 
homa City. It was announced and extensively advertised as a 
"nonpartisan convention to be composed of the people of both Ter- 
ritories and of all political parties." The convention was held, and 
telegrams were sent over the country announcing that a great con- 



6o 

vention composed of delegates representing- all political parties and 
the whole people of both Territories had been held, and had unani- 
mously declared for a union of the two Territories in a single State, 
and had also condemned the provision of the omnibus bill in that 
particular. An announcement was made in the Senate that the 
greatest convention ever held in the Southwest, and representing all 
the people and all parties of both Territories, had assembled and de- 
clared for single statehood. 

The Senator who made that announcement doubtless supposed 
he was stating the facts and enlightening the Senate. But if so, he 
was grossly deceived and imposed upon. He was simply the victim 
of an artful and designing combination of Democratic politicians. 
The so-called convention was simply an adroitly planned fraud, 
which outrageously misrepresented not only the Republicans, but 
the whole people of Oklahoma. 

THE FACTS STATED. 

We state what we know to be true when we say that no dele- 
gates were sent to that convention, b}^ meetings or caucuses, from 
more than four counties in Oklahoma. From the counties lying 
west of the line of the Santa Fe Railroad, embracing two-thirds ot 
the Territory, only one county made even a pretense of choosing 
delegates, while east of that line delegates were only sent from 
three counties. What was paraded as a great representative con- 
vention was practically only a mass meeting of citizens of Oklahoma 
City and a train load brought from towns in Indian Territory. In- 
dividual Democratic politicians who were present were seated and 
called delegates who were not sent there by any constituency, and 
who represented nobody but themselves. The Republicans of the 
Territory did not participate in it, and had no sympathy with its 
purposes. It is proper to say, however, that Oklahoma City and 
Shawnee are so located that many of their people believe that local 
advantages could be secured in the location of public institutions 
through single statehood ; and a few Republicans in those cities 
have cooperated with their Democratic neighbors, and their names 
have been conspicuously paraded to convey the false impression 
that the convention was nonpartisan and represented the Republi- 
cans of the Territory. But beyond a very few, influenced by mere 
local considerations, the Republicans of Oklahoma are united and 
harmonious in favor of statehood for Oklahoma without waiting 
for the Indian Territory. In the past there have been differences 
of judgment, but in the light of present conditions there are practi- 
cally none now. 



6i 

A more deceptive and fraudulent proceeding was never per- 
petrated in the form of a convention than the Oklahoma City con- 
vention to which we have referred. 

ANOTHER OF THE §AME KIND, 

Recently another convention was held, and again extensively 
advertised as a "nonpartisan convention." This convention was 
held at Shawnee, June 24, 1903. Delegates were chose in less than 
half a dozen counties in Oklahoma, and the same methods were 
pursued as in the former convention. The usual "nonpartisan" 
resolutions were adopted, and the country again flooded with tele- 
grams announcing a great convention of the people, of all parties- 
and of both Territories. 

But what w^e wish more particularly to call attention to in this 
connection is the studied method of fraud practiced to mislead 
public opinion and judgment. At Guthrie no convention or caucus 
was held to select delegates; but a delegation was made up in the 
office of the Democratic newspaper, and telegraphed as having been 
chosen by a mass meeting of the people. It included the names of 
such Republicans as ex-Governor Barnes, F. H. Greer, editor ot 
the State Capital, and others. Neither of these gentlemen knew 
anything of a caucus whatever. Neither had any sympathy with 
the convention or approved of its purposes, and of course did not 
attend it. The same disreputable scheme w-as resorted to in other 
counties. Prominent Republicans know^n to be antagonistic to the 
purpose of the convention were named as delegates in secret 
caucuses, and their names published as delegates present at the 
convention, the' object being to convey to the country, and espe- 
cially to Republican members of Congress, the false and mislead- 
ing information that the convention was nonpartisan and not 
strictly Democratic: that it embraced leading and influential Repub- 
licans of the Territory, and thus to secure for it a consideration 
which Republicans would not otherwise be expected to accord it. 

THE ELECTION OF I9O2. 

It has also been represented that the election of McGuire last 
year as a Delegate was due to the fact that the Democrats per- 
mitted him to be elected, in the hope that his election would en- 
courage a Republican Congress to favor statehood. 

A comparison of the vote cast for the Congressional candidates 
with the vote for the local or county candidates, will show that this 
statement is without a shadow of truth. It will show that McGuire 
lost considerably on account of the statehood question, and gained 



(>2. 

nothing. In the two or three counties to which we have elsewhere 
referred, wherein a strong single statehood sentiment exists, Mc- 
Giiire lost many votes, but he gained nothing in the other counties. 

While it is true that a majority of the Democrats of the Terri- 
tory did not approve of the position of their candidate on the state- 
hood question, they gave him an united support as the party candi- 
date. He lost no votes anywhere, while McGuire did lose in the 
localities mentioned. 

It was urged in the campaign by the Democratic candidate 
and his supporters that the Republicans had heretofore, in several 
campaigns, regularly promised statehood, but that the pledges of 
their candidates and of their platforms had not been respected; that 
those promises had only been made to catch votes and then be dis- 
regarded and broken. The facts gave sufficient plausibility to this 
charge to make it damaging to the Republican candidate and to the 
whole party in the Territory. And instead of gaining votes on the 
statehood question, the Republicans were weakened considerably on 
account of it. 

We are of the opinion, however, that a large majority of the 
Democrats of the Territory are in harmony with the views of the 
Republicans on the statehood question. The ambitious political 
representatives of the party are for single statehood ; but the busi- 
ness element, and the common voters, do not sympathize with them. 
So general is this feeling that the managers have been unable to 
induce the voters to send delegates to their statehood conventions. 
In their efforts to organize the so-called great conventions at Okla- 
homa City last winter, they were only able to persuade four coun- 
ties to hold meetings to send delegates. And recently, in endeavor- 
ing to work up an interest in the Shawnee convention, hundreds of 
personal letters were sent over the Territory appealing to the local 
managers to send delegations, but they only succeeded in inducing 
six counties to do so. 

We are of the opinion that the Republican party of Oklahoma 
represents the desires of more than three-fourths of the people of 
the Territory. It has nearly a united support of the Republicans 
and the quiet sympathy of more than half of the Democrats also. 

Taking advantage of local conditions in the counties above 
mentioned, those who control the Democratic organization have 
adroitly paraded mere local mass meetings before the country as 
representative conventions, and have succeeded in creating impres- 
sions and opinions outside of the Territory entirely unwarranted 
by the facts and which are prejudicial to a just and fair considera- 
tion not only of the interests of the Territory, but of the local Re- 
publican party and of the whole country. 



63 

THE TRUTH SHOULD BE KNOWN. 

We are thus particular in referring to these methods because 
we know that they have had m some degree the effect intended, 
even with some members of Congress, and because they will certainly 
be repeated and supplemented by other means of deception. We re- 
gard them as disreputable schemes, too unworthy to be considered 
with patience. And we hope that in exposing them they may be 
made less effective in the future and fail to be successful in the 
I)urposes that inspire them. We desire that the final judgment and 
action of Congress shall be based upon the full truth of the situation, 
and not upon false information inspired by hostile political motives 
and distributed by fraud and rascality. 

INDIAN TERRITORY REPUBLICANS. 

Many Republicans in the Indian Territory favor single state- 
hood. They do so in the vague hope that Oklahoma might possi- 
l)ly be strong enough to make the joint State Republican. But this 
is an utter delusion. Oklahoma can take care of herself, but she 
can not overcome the Democratic majority in the Indian Territory. 
That majority will be from 20,000 to 40,000, and it is greater than 
the Republicans of Oklahoma could reasonably be expected to over- 
come. 

The Republicans in the Indian Territory are actuated by 
motives similar to those of the Democrats in Oklahoma. They de- 
sire to become citizens of a State of their own political faith. We 
sympathize with them in the unfortunate prospects before them, but 
we can not rescue them. We can only hope to be saved from l-)eing 
overwhelmed with them ourselves. 

We desire to repeat that the Republicans of Oklahoma are sub- 
stantially united in favor of statehood for Oklahoma and against 
the Democratic scheme of single statehood. They adhere to the 
platform upon which they elected their present Delegate, and pro- 
test against being refused admission until the iin(>pri-ain time when 
the affairs of the Indian Territory will warrant a condition of state- 
hood there. 

THE WAY OUT. 

In conclusion, we beg to suggest as a proper disposition of the 
subject that Congress now admit Oklahoma, reserving the right to 
attach the Indian Territory in the future. This would give Okla- 
homa an opportunity to demonstrate whether she can be relied on as 
a Republican State or not. If she should prove to be a Democratic 
State, the Indian Territory could then be merged into her and one 



64 

Democratic State he made. If, on the other hand, she should dem- 
onstrate her loyalty to the Republican party, as we know she would, 
we have no fear that Congress would ever desire to obliterate her 
identity by casting her into the arms of a Democratic majority in 
the Indian Territory. 

C. M. CADE, Chairman. 
A. J. SEAY, 
C. AI. BARNES, 
CHARLES P. LINCOLN. 
H. E. HAVENS. . 

EXHIBIT C. 

A conference of the leading men of the Creek Nation met in 
the Chief's office at 1 1 o'clock A. M., pursuant to a call of the Prin- 
cipal Chief, P. Porter, and adjourned to meet again at i P. M.. in 
the rooms of the Commercial Club. 

I o'clock p. m. 

The conference met at i P. M.. pursuant to adjournment in 
the rooms of the Commercial Club, and organized by electing the 
Second Chief, Moty Tiger. Chairman; A. P. McKellop, Clerk, and 
G. W. Grayson, Interpreter. 

It was moved and carried that a roll of the members of the 
Conference be made, showing the towns which they represent. The 
following roll was made in accordance with the above action of the 
Conference, to- wit : 

J. Moty Tiger. Second Chief. Tokebache Town. 

2. S. J. Haynes, Tow'n King, Tulwa Thlocco. 

3. Thos. J. Adams, Town King, Kichopatkee. 

4. David Anderson, Town King, Conchartee. 

5. C. B. Perryman, Town King, Big Spring. 

6. A. P. McKellop, Towm King, Coweta. 

7. Paro Brunner, Town King, Canadian Colored. 

8. Alex. Davis, M. C, House of Warriors, Tulwa Thlocco. 

9. Joe Grayson, House of Warriors, Kechopatke. 

10. Albert Burgess. House of Warriors, Big Spring. 

11. W. E. Gentry, House of Warriors. Broken Arrow. 

12. Dave Roberts, House of Warriors, Canadian Colored. 

13. Robert Manual, House of Warriors, Canadian Colored. 

14. G. A. Alexander, of the Tokebache Town. 

15. March Thompson, of the Tulwa Thlocco. 

16. John R. Goat, of the Tulsa Little River. 

17. Ben Marshall, of the Broken Arrow. 



65 

i8. John Francis, M. C, House of Warriors, Oche Apofa. 

19. Jim Walker, House of Warriors. 

20. G. W. Grayson, House of Warriors, Coweta Town. 

21. Cheesie Mcintosh, House of Warriors, Coweta Town. 

22. Cub Mcintosh, House of Warriors, Coweta Town. 

23. Theo. E. Stidham, House of Warriors, Hechittee Town. 

On motion, General Porter, the Principal Chief, was called 
upon to state the object for which he called the conference. The 
object of the Conference was accordingly stated by Chief Porter. 

The Conference of citizens of the Muskogee Nation, called Dy 
the Principal Chief Porter, met on this the 14th day of July, at 
Muskogee, and passed the following resolutions : 

Resolved, By the Conference of citizens of the Muskogee 
Nation, convened at Muskogee on this the 14th day of July, 1905, 
that it is the sense of this body that the Creek people are opposed 
to any plan of statehood for the Indian Territory which shall in- 
clude any scheme of alliance with the present citizens and Territory 
of Oklahoma; ^ < 

Be it further Resolved, That the Principal Chief be, and he 
is hereby requested in his conference with the Chiefs of the Five 
Civilized Tribes, to endeavor to secure equal representation for the 
Indians as well as the white citizens of the country, who shall con- 
vene and engage in the work of formulating and drafting a constitu- 
tion for the State to be erected in place of the present Indian Ter- 
ritory. 

GEO. A. ALEXANDER, Chairman. 

Motion was made by T. J. Adams to adopt the above Com- 
mittee's report, and was unanimously adopted. 

MOTY TIGER, Chairman. 

United States of America, 



Indian Territory, Western District, 

Pleasant Porter, Principal Chief of the Creek Nation, being 
first duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that the fore- 
going resolution, dated July 14th, 1905, is a true, perfect and cor- 
rect copy of the original resolution. 

P. PORTER. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 31st day of October, 

^^°^' JAY P. FARNSWORTH, 

Notary Public. 
[seal.] 

My commission expires August i6th, 1908. 



66 
EXHIBIT D. 

RESOLUTION ENDORSING THE ACTION OF THE PRINCIPAL CHIEF 

RELATIVE TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, AND IN 

RELATION THERETO. 

Whereas. The Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation, acting 
in conjunction with the Governors of the Cherokee, Creek, Chick- 
asaw and Seminole Nations, called a Constitutional Convention at 
Muskogee. Indian Territory: and 

Whereas, Said Convention was composed of the most repre- 
sentative and intelligent class of the inhabitants residing in the boun- 
daries of the Five Civilized Trbes : and 

Whereas. The Convention has adopted and promulgated a 
Constitution to be submitted to a vote of the people on Tuesday, 
November 7. 1905. that reflects the highest order of intelligence 
,and patriotism on the part of the members composing that dis- 
tinguished assembly; and 

Whereas. The treaties between the United State Government 
and the Five Civilized Tribes contain numerous provisions virtually 
pledging to the Indians thereof the creation of a State out of the 
Indian Territory, independent and alone ; and 

Whereas, The racial pride not yet extinct among our j>eople 
craves the boon of one modest Indian State out of a domain which 
at one time almost composed the continent ; and 

Whereas, In resources and material well being, the Indian 
territory is equipped in every particular for statehood of and by 
itself ; therefore 

Be it Resoh'cd by the General Coimcil of the Choctaw Nation 
assembled : 

Sec I. That the action of our Chief in his earnest efforts lo 
secure Statehood for the Indian Territory is hereby commended and 
endorsed. 

Sec 2. That the Constitution adopted by the said Constitu- 
tional Convention is hereby approved and ratified by the General 
Council of the Choctaw Nation, because it more truly represents and 
reflects the sentiment and feeling of the great mass of people in- 
liabiting the Indian Territory than any other ]:»ublished expression 
extant. 

Sec 3. That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the 
President of the United States, conveying the sense of this body, 
and that this resolution shall take effect and be in force from and 
after its passage and approval. 

I. E. H. Wilson. National Secretary of the Choctaw Nation, 
herebv certifv that that the above and foregoing is a true and perfect 



67 

copy of Bill No. 9, as passed by the Choctaw Council assembled at 
its regular October Session, which said bill was approved by the 
Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation on October 24, 1905, the 
original of which bill is now on file in my office. 

Witness my hand and the Great Seal of the Choctaw Nation, 
this I ith day of November, 1905. 

E. H. WILSON, 

National Secretary. 
[seal.] 

(Copy.) 

EXHIBIT E. 

RESOLUTIONS AND MEMORIAL. 

To the Congress of the United States relative to treaty obligations, 
executive and departmental promises, touching the fonn of gov- 
ernment and boundaries thereof, which shall succeed the tribal 
government : 

Whereas, The United States in consideration of the remov- 
ing of the Choctaw Indians from their abode east of the Mississippi 
River to their present home, agreed and stipulated in words and fig- 
ures, following, to wit : 

"The Government and people of the United States are hereby 
obliged to secure to the said Choctaw Nation of red people the juris- 
diction and government of all the persons and property that may be 
within their limits west, so that no Territory or State shall ever 
have a right to pass laws for the government of the Choctaw Nation 
of red people and their descendants, and that no part of the land 
granted them shall ever be embraced in any State or Territory." 
(7th U. S. Stat., page 334.) 

Whereas, The above and foregoing article is a portion of the 
treaty of October 18, 1820, which ceded to the Choctaw Indians all 
the lands now embraced within the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, 
and occupied by said tribe. 

Whereas, Subsequent thereto the Chickasaws bought an equal 
undivided interest in said lands from the Choctaws, and 

Whereas, By the Treaty of the City of W^ashington on the 
24th day of May, 1834, whereby the removal of the Chickasaws was 
effected, the United States Government guaranteed in Article 2 ni 
said Treaty that : 

"The Chickasaws are about to abandon their homes, which 
they have long cherished and loved, and though hitherto unsuccess- 
ful, they still hope to find a country ade(}uate to the wants and sup- 



68 

port of their people somewhere west of the Mississippi, and within 
the Territorial hniits of the United States. Should they do so, the 
Government of the United States hereby consents to protect arid 
defend them against the inroads of any other Tribe of Indians and 
from the whites, and agree to keep them without the limits of any 
State or Territory." 

Whereas, Said agreement has never been repealed, modified 
or abridged, until the ratification of the Atoka Agreement of 1898 
by and between the United States and the Choctaws and Chicka 
saws. 

Whereas, Pursuant to an Act of Congress, entitled "The 
Dawes Commission Act" of 1893, for the allotment of the lands 
of the Five Civilized Tribes, that said Commission held out the hope 
and the promise to the Chickasaws and Choctaws that they should 
be made citizens of the United States, and should be organized into 
a State Government, embracing the lands now occupied by the Five 
Civilized Tribes, and that they should never, without their consent, 
be included within the Territory of Oklahoma, or that of any other 
State or Territory. 

Whereas, The agreement concluded at Atoka by and between 
the United States and the Choctaws and Chickasaws, guaranteeing 
a continuation of their Tribal Government till the 4th day of March. 
1906, and ratified and approved in 1898. contained this explicit 
pledge : 

"This stipulation is made in the belief that the Tribal Gov- 
ernment so modified will prove so satisfactory that there will be no 
need or desire for further change till the lands now occupied by the 
Five Civilized Tribes shall, in the opinion of Congress, be prepared 
for admission as a State of the Union." 

Whereas, The time has come for the Chickasaw people to 
hold their last council, and to pass from their cherished tribal ex- 
istence to that of statehood as provided by the Atoka Agreement. 

Whereas, It would redound to the happiness and prosperity of 
the Chickasaw Indians to be included within a State composed of 
the Five Civilized Tribes, rather than to be overwhelmed by an 
alien population of a foreign Territory, whom we do not know, 
and who have not favorably known us, and whose knowledge of the 
Indian is that of a savage rather than that of the Five Civilized 
Tribes. 

Whereas, We have an abiding faith in the integrity of the 
United States and her treaty obligations, emphasized by official 
documentary declarations that on the passing of their tribal ex- 
istence we shall receive the promise not to include us with any 
Territory or State, except that comprising the Five Civilized Tribes. 



69 

Whereas, A convention consisting of delegates from the Five 
Civilized Tribes met at Muskogee, on August 21, 1905 ; framed and 
ratified a constitution known as the Constitution for the proposed 
State of Sequoyah, and adopted the same on the 8th day of Sep- 
tember, 1905, and afterward to be submitted to a vote of the whole 
people of the Indian Territory on November 7, 1905. 

Therefore, be it resolved, By the Legislature of the Chickasaw 
Nation that we do unalterably oppose being included within the 
boundaries of Oklahoma, or any other State or Territory, save and 
except the Territory now occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes; 
that we do most solemnly protest against the passage of any bill 
seeking to include us within the Territorial limits of Oklahoma, 
either as a State or Territory. 

Resolved second, That we endorse and commend the work of 
the Muskogee Convention and the Constitution adopted by the 
same, looking to the creation of a State out of the lands now em- 
braced within the present limits of the Indian Territory. That this 
memorial take effect from and after its passage by each House of 
this Legislature, and that a copy of the same be furnished to the 
committee and delegates selected by said Muskogee Convention to 
be presented to the President, and to the Senate and House of the 
Congress of the United States. 

Recommended by Representative Frank O. Smith, of Ryan ; 
Senator G. W. Young, of Berwyn, this October 10, 1905. 
Passed the House the i8th day of October, 1905. 

C. H. BROWN, 

Speaker. 
Attest : 

W. T. WARD, 
Clerk. 
Passed the Senate October 20, 1905. 

M. V. CHEADLE, 

President Senate. 
Attest : 

O. D. WHITE, 
Secretary. 

EXHIBIT F. 

joint resolution no. II. 

Whereas, Section 6t, of an Act of Congress approved July ist. 
1902, entitled "An Act to provide for the allotment of lands of the 
Cherokee Nation, for the disposition of Townsites therein, atid for 



70 

other purposes, provides: "The Tribal Government of the Cherokee 
Nation shall not continue longer than March 4, 1906 ;" and 

Whereas, Article 5 of the Treaty of 1835 provides: "The 
United States covenants and agrees that the lands ceded to the 
Cherokee Nation in the foregoing article shall in no future time, 
without their consent be included within the territorial limits or 
jurisdiction of any State or Territory;" and 

Whereas, The lands ceded in the foregoing article embrace 
those lands now being allotted by the Commissioner to the Five 
Civilized Tribes to the Citizens of the Cherokee Nation ; and 

Whereas, William C. Rogers, Principal Chief of the Cherokee 
Nation, in conjunction with the representatives of the other Five 
Civilized Tribes, called a conventon which assembled at Muskogee, 
Indian Territory, and on September 8th, 1905, adopted a Constitu- 
tion to be submitted for ratification on November 7, 1905, providing 
for Separate Statehood for the lands now occupied by the Five 
Civilized Tribes and the Ouapaw Indians Reservation ; therefore 

Be It Resolved by the National Council of the Cherokee Nation, 
That the action of William C. Rogers, Principal Chief of the Cher- 
okee Nation, in calling, in conjunction with the representatives of 
the other Five Civilized Tribes, the Separate Statehood Convention. 
is hereby endorsed, and it is the sense of the National Council of 
the Cherokee people that they are opposed to being united in state- 
hood with the Territory of Oklahoma, but that they favor separate 
statehood with the other Five Civilized Tribes, and the Quapaw 
Indian Reservation, and we hereby endorse the Constitution as 
adopted for the proposed State of Sequoyah by the Separate State- 
hood Convention held in the City of Muskogee, Ind. Terr.. Sep- 
tember 8, 1905. 

Passed the Senate this September 29th, 1905. 

JOE M. La hay. 
President of the Senate. 
J. L. BAUGH, 

Clerk of the Senate. 

Concurred in by the House, September 29th, 190=5. 

JOHN H. GIBSON, 

Speaker of CoiincH. 
MARTIN M. ROWE, 

Clerk of Council. 
Executive Department of the Cherokee Nation. 

W. C. ROGERS, 
Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. 
Approved : 

September 30, 1905. 

(Copy.) 



